Noctuary
by Desperado1102
Summary: Evalina Grey has lost everything and moved to Shreveport, Louisiana to start over. What she didn't expect was the turn her life would take thanks to Eric Northman.
1. Chapter 1

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters (Eric, Pam, Sookie, Bill, ect...) except the ones I made up-ha.

-Hey guys, this is my first True Blood fic, hope you like it!

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"I'm so excited that you decided to move down here, Evie. It'll be just like college!" Eva smiled, the grin not quite reaching her pewter colored eyes, though her friend wasn't nearly that observant.

"Me too, me too," Eva agreed, squeezing her best friend's hand reassuringly as they walked lazily down the sidewalk.

To be perfectly honest, Shreveport, Louisiana was not, by any means, Eva's first choice in the category of places to live. Given her less than fortunate circumstances though, she decided moving somewhere new and off the map would solve her problems, or at least some of them. Shreveport was where her best friend, Whitney, moved after college on some inexplicable whim Eva could never understand. Still, it was safe to say that Eva needed a crutch, a shoulder to cry on, and all she could think to do was pack up and move to Shreveport.

"Come out with us tonight, Evie, you'll have fun I swear," Whitney trilled excitedly, her face lighting up with glee. Eva felt a jolt of hesitation about the idea. Was she completely ready to go out and have fun again? It must have been months since she laughed, really _laughed. _Whitney sensed Eva's hesitation and laid a hand on her friend's arm. "Eva, they would want you to go out and have fun. You're twenty-seven and beautiful and single and loads of fun…" Whitney paused and shook her head. It was a speech spoken frequently, each time with a new fervor. "You have a whole life ahead of you to live yet. They would want you to live it, Evie," she finished sweetly, smiling at Eva.

Eva knew Whitney was right. There was no sense in throwing her life away out of grief. Her family, the only family she had ever known, was dead, and there was nothing she could do to bring them back. She was across the country now, far, far away from the painful memories of home.

Eva took a shaky deep breath and smiled at her friend. "Since when did you become all wise and grown-up?" Eva joked, drawing a bright smile from Whitney.

"Must be all this Southern air," she hummed, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath through her nose. Eva couldn't help but laugh at her and Whitney opened her eyes hopefully.

"So you'll come out with us tonight then?" Whitney was still smiling but there was an edge to her voice that told Eva that if she backed out there would be trouble.

"Of course I will, Whit," Eva said and laughed as Whitney nearly strangled her in an embrace. Eva had to stop their progression down the sidewalk to keep them standing and hugged Whitney back, laughing while Whitney squealed in delight.

"Good!" she announced, releasing Eva from her death grip.

"Where to?" The duo started to walk again but Whitney stayed quiet, guiltily so. Her brows were raised and her lips were pursed together into a thoughtful line. Eva didn't like that look on her face one little bit. "Whitney," Eva said, her voice chiding as Whitney avoided eye contact. "Whit!"

"Wouldn't you rather it be a surprise? Everyone likes surprises," Whitney sang, her childlike wonder building. Eva rolled her eyes and all but snorted at the thought.

"I don't think surprises are a good idea for me, Whit. So just tell me what's going on tonight," Eva joked, still in good humor as Whitney smiled in defeat.

"You already said you'd come so there's no backing out. I mean it, Eva." Whitney's face was comically serious as she glanced over at her. Eva's hands went up in defense as she conceded to Whitney's terms. "Okay, well, you know how the vampires 'came out of the coffin' a couple years ago?" Eva's eyes narrowed as Whitney air quoted some of her sentence. She nodded, allowing Whitney to continue. "There's this great club about thirty minutes south of here where you can actually mingle with them and get drinks and dance. It's an awesome place." Whitney became silent as she looked over at Eva. Her jaw had dropped slightly at the suggestion. Sure, she knew that vampires had revealed themselves to the rest of the known world, but up north she hadn't encountered one at all. Not that she was anti-vampire because that wasn't the case at all. She was absolutely thrilled by them, as she suspected all humans- even the ignorant protesters- were. They had so much more than humans. Their hearts were still and silent but they were agelessly beautiful, unaffected by time, hindered by no man, woman, or beast. They were the epitome of beauty, grace, and the embodiment of every human's dream: immortal.

"…And the owner is probably the most gorgeous man I've ever seen in my life." As Eva snapped back into reality, she caught the flutter of her friend's hand to accompany the last part of her sentence. Eva was speechless. Still stunned that she hadn't known that her best friend was a frequent customer at a fancy vampire bar. "Eva," Whitney snapped, her face expectant as she glared at her friend.

"Is the owner a vampire or human?" It was the only thing Eva could think to say. Whitney took the question as affirmation to her request and clapped her hands excitedly, laughing.

"He's a vampire," Whitney said, linking her arm with Eva's as they walked. Eva just nodded her head, raising her eyebrows at the thought of spending her night at a vampire bar.

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Her closet was full of nice things but suddenly nothing seemed appropriate. In a frustrated huff, she dropped to the carpet in front of her closet in only her bra and underwear. She hadn't bothered with picking anything out. Her head dropped into her hands as she let out a loud grumble. Maybe she wasn't ready to go out. Maybe she should just crawl back into bed and close her eyes and pray to wake up to a time when she didn't remember any of the consuming pain she felt day in and day out.

Briefly she wondered what her parents would say about how she intended to spend her evening. She supposed her mother would light up with excitement; her sense of adventure was uncontainable. The sight of her mother and father's accepting faces helped to steady her fraying nerves and diluted some of the pain. She hadn't meant to shut herself off from the outside world. Somehow, it just happened and soon, she found herself walking up to a completely different person looking back at her in the mirror. The suffering she had endured had hollowed her out, leaving nothing but a shell of her former self. Her friends had tried and tried to steer her away from the brink but she was so lost those first few months. And how could she not be? Anyone who ever mattered to her, her brothers, her sister, her mother, her father, were all dead. She was the only one left.

The doorbell rang, startling her before she realized that it must just be Whitney. She was late and Whitney would be beside herself when she saw her. Regardless, Eva walked-trudged- to the door, still scantily clad, and pulled it open. Whitney sighed, half expecting Eva to be unprepared and motioned for the other girls to enter after her.

"Hi, sugar, how you doin'?" Whitney's friend, Sarah, who had quickly become one of Eva's favorites, asked. Eva nodded and shrugged as the rest of the group ambled in. "Come on, Evie, we'll get you dressed," Sarah said, a hint of a devilish smile on her lips. Sensing that her friends were going to play Barbie with her, Eva groaned. She suddenly wished she had picked out something to wear when she had the damn chance.

A few shirts, nearly every pair of jeans she owned, and several shoes later, Eva was finally dressed. She had to admit, she looked better than she had in a long time. Her raven hair was long and curling down her back, a sensual contrast to her vibrant red lipstick and dusty pewter eyes. The outfit she wore was edgier than she would have gone, but she blended in nicely with the girls. Her dark jeans were skinny all the way down to the ankle and she wore a black, chiffon, sleeveless top with nothing but a black lace bra underneath. To top it all off, her patent leather, dark purple pumps were four inches high. She was sure that was some kind of record. She looked like a shadow against the pale glow of the lights in the parking lot of the bar.

The bar was extraordinarily unassuming, but the parking lot was packed. There was a neon sign above the building that read 'Fangtasia' and Eva couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her lips. What kind of a name was that?

Whitney, unafraid of anything, stepped up to the woman at the door taking IDs. As she handed the classically beautiful blonde her card, Whitney glanced back at Eva and smiled excitedly before she was allowed to entre.

"ID please," the blonde said dully to Eva, her southern accent classier than the old, Western twangs she had endured so far. Eva handed her New York ID over for the woman's inspection and noticed her raise a perfectly sculpted brow. "What brings you to a vampire bar in Shreveport, Louisiana?" she asked, again, dully. Eva shrugged her shoulder as the woman handed her ID back, still watching her intently for an answer.

"Change of pace," Eva responded, sweeping past her and following Whitney to the bar. She was glad they made a b-line for the bar because something told her she would need to be good and drunk for the night to come. "Cranberry and vodka, please," Eva said to the so obviously vampire bartender. She was surprised being so close to a vampire didn't shake her view of the world. When the vampires had come out, people's whole impressions of humanity and the world had been uprooted and tossed about violently. But she hadn't thought anything of it. In truth, she wasn't even all that surprised. Although she had expected some feeling of some sort, she felt nothing special. Envy maybe; complete closet adoration, but no panic or horror.

"Isn't this so great?" Whitney commented, sipping her drink daintily and running her eyes over the crowded bar. There were people of all kinds in the dark, smoky room dancing together, drinking together. She glanced over at Whitney whose eyes still searched, and furrowed her brow.

"What…"

"Look, there he is!" Whitney exclaimed, rousing the other girls they had come with. Eva couldn't understand what Whitney was talking about and was getting tired of staring at nothing, so she turned back to the bar. Sarah was on one side of her and Whitney on the other, their backs pressed against the edge of the bar while they murmured their praises for this mystery Adonis.

"I need another one of these," Eva deadpanned, motion toward her drink to the bartender.

"Quick. For a human," the bartender said, making her a new drink so fast she almost missed it.

"I'd thank you, but I can't decide if that was a compliment or not yet," Eva said, sipping the cold drink and reveling in the burn that slid down her throat. The bartender smiled and shook his head, walking toward the next paying customer. Eva sighed and turned herself around, but not without some difficulty. She was wedged so tightly between Sarah and Whitney she could barely turn around and they were so enthralled with this infamous bar owner that they didn't even notice her.

"God, guys, you're suffocating me," Eva laughed lightly, glancing over to Sarah who had just sighed dreamily.

"I would give anything for a piece of that," Sarah muttered seductively, batting her eyelashes in the direction of the man. Eva was about to open her mouth and tell Sarah that she looked like a high school teenager when Sarah's hand came down on her arm. Eva swore as the jolting movement spilled some of her newly poured drink all over her arm and hand.

"God damnit, Sarah." Eva made the move to turn around and grab some napkins so she could soak up the drink she just ordered from her skin, but Sarah's grip was firm.

"He's looking at you, Evie!" Sarah whispered so animatedly that her voice shook. Still concerned with the now sticky liquid on her arm, Eva ignored her friend, switching her drink to the other hand because Sarah's grip was cutting off her circulation. "Evie!" Sarah hissed. It was a good thing Eva switched her drink from her left hand because Sarah jostled her violently again.

"What! What, Sarah?" Eva growled, exasperated.

"He's staring at you," Sarah repeated, her voice still high pitched and shaky. If she was offended by Eva's rudeness, she didn't show it.

"Who, who is staring at me that's so damn important that you had to spill my drink all over me?" There was a bitterness that sprung into Eva's voice and she visibly calmed herself down. She was going to have fun tonight if it killed her.

"The bar owner."

Eva's head snapped up, her eyes still trained furiously on Sarah at first, but then she ran her eyes over the crowd until she found eyes that looked back at her. Finally, her gaze landed on a pair of clear, glacial blue eyes. She expanded her view out from merely his eyes and explored his inhumanly beautiful face. She stifled a gasp and tried her damndest not to stare, but he was so handsome. His hair was a shining golden blonde color and his skin was white as a sheet. His shoulders were broad underneath his black shirt and Eva couldn't help but notice his defined muscles.

Sarah was right. The bar owner was staring at her.

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Hope you liked the first chapter! Let me know what you thought.

-Kate


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys, thanks for the reviews! Here's the next chapter! Enjoy--

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

The way he was looking at her stirred something inside of her, set her on fire in a sense. His eyes were intense and unmoving in a way that only a vampire could achieve and she found it nearly impossible to tear away from him. She had never seen someone so handsome and so obviously, physically not human and she was entranced by him.

After a few long, still minutes, Eva forced herself to look away. Even though he was easy on the eyes, to say the least, she would not stroke his ego by giving him the satisfaction of her desire…for lack of a better word. He could stare at her all night long if he liked, she was not a woman who was easily unnerved.

As Eva turned back to the bar, her slew of friends turned along with her.

"Can I get some napkins, please?" Eva asked the bartender and before she could take a breath, the napkins were in front of her.

"Oh my god, Evie, he was like really staring at you!" Whitney exclaimed, her face brightening instantly. Eva grumbled as she wiped her hand and arm down. The gesture was useless at that point because in the full minute she and the blonde haired incarnation of beauty had engaged in a staring contest, the vodka and juice had dried into a sticky mess on her arm.

"Well maybe he was staring because Sarah made me spill my drink all over his floor. He's probably eyeing us to clean it up after the party's over," Eva joked and Sarah laughed. Good, she was trying to steer the conversation away from the bar owner and herself. The feeling she experienced when she had looked at him both thrilled and confused her and now was not the time to dissect it.

Eventually, the conversation edged away from the golden-haired man and onto other things. Every couple of minutes, Eva would cast a sideways glance over to the bar owner, but only when she couldn't help herself any longer. Only when she couldn't ignore the feeling of his eyes on her face anymore would she allow herself to be distracted by him. His eyes hadn't strayed from her since the moment Sarah had told her he had locked them there and she was secretly overwhelmed by the attention. He was obviously a wanted man; several people had approached him and he had waved them off like they were nothing but begging puppies.

"Now," a drawling voice interrupted her idle musings and a big, broad chest appeared directly in her view of the blonde-haired man, blocking him from sight. "What's a nice girl like you doin' down here," he said, his voice slow and meant to be seductive she supposed. Eva's only concern was her inability to see the man across the room and she almost growled. The vampire before her was clad in a cowboy hat and a black button down shirt. He looked like the vampire version of the lone ranger, and inspired just as much fear as Kangaroo Jack. Eva was less than interested. "Don't you look tasty," he murmured, leaning closer so that over his shoulder, Eva was able to see a pair of ice blue eyes watching her intently, amused and curious.

"Hey there, cowboy," Eva stammered, holding her hand up and leaning backwards over the bar until it was uncomfortable on her back. "I am not interested." Eva enunciated her words very carefully, making sure they were heard and sunk in. The cowboy vampire, a horrible contradiction in her mind, stopped short, fury creasing his brow as he bore down on Eva's tiny frame.

"You're saying no to me, human?" he laughed heatedly, completely disbelieving in her rejection. Eva knew she should tread carefully but she really had no experience handling the angry undead so she was a bit less eloquent than she probably should have been.

"I'm afraid so," Eva said, unable to contain the sarcasm that leaped into her voice. She could think of no other way to turn the man down and her friends were off mingling with their potential one-night-stands. The cowboy growled, a feral noise that built deep in his throat and vibrated through her as he put his face so close to hers that she could feel the chill of his skin. It was apparent that she had really, really pissed him off, but what was he going to do? Kill her in front of everyone in the club? Highly improbable.

"No one says no to me," he snarled before straightening and stalking off. It was probably a good thing he walked off so quickly because Eva would have run the risk of saying something unbelievably stupid. Still, despite her rage, her heart raced painfully, her face flushed, and her hands shook slightly from the danger the man imposed. Quietly and artfully, Eva pulled herself together and turned back to the bar, ignoring her speeding heart.

An hour later, Eva felt weariness settle on her shoulders like a lead weight. It had been a long, long time since she had been out at any type of social gathering and she was a little rusty at pulling all-nighters. As her friends leaned into their companions, whispering sweet nothings, Eva stifled a yawn and put her glass down on the bar, emptied.

"Care for another one?" the bartender asked, appearing out of thin air. Eva shook her raven head, closing her eyes and sliding the emptied glass toward him.

"You of all people should know I don't need another one," Eva lightly scolded him, a smile on her tired face. The bartender merely nodded graciously, a farewell, then swiped up the glass and disappeared just exactly the same way he appeared. Eva turned around to locate Whitney so she could tell her she was leaving and spotted her lounging on an interestingly designed leather couch, getting rather cozy. Leave it to Whitney to seduce both man and vampire.

"Hey, Whit," Eva said, smiling casually as she approached.

"Hey, sweetie," Whitney said, confusion in her eyes as she read Eva's face.

"I'm gonna grab a cab and get outta here," Eva told her, angling her body toward the door.

"I'll come," Whitney offered and her companion looked rather disappointed at the offer.

"No, no," Eva said, waving her hand at her friend's kindness. "I'll be fine, really. I remember where I live." Whitney cracked a smile and settled back into the leather of the couch against the vampire. "Call me when you get home?" Eva asked, heading in the direction of the door. Whitney nodded causing her blonde curls to bob against her shoulders.

"Love you," Whitney called after her.

"Love you," Eva threw over her shoulder as she walked off.

Just as she reached the door, Eva looked back over her shoulder at the bar owner. He was still sitting in exactly the same spot staring at her in exactly the same way. His eyes sparkled like highly polished sapphires and a small smile graced his bowed lips. It almost pained her to leave that face, that body, those curious eyes, but she pushed her way out the door nonetheless.

The air was cold and startling as she stepped out to the parking lot. She rubbed her arms and sighed, idly thinking about why she didn't call a cab before she left the building. It was too late now, so she pulled out her phone and began to dial. Her fingers froze on the buttons when she heard a horribly familiar growl behind her. The sound was low and threatening, like a lion about to strike, and it sent a chill up her spine.

"Going somewhere?" the voice drawled, a cold, unmovable hand clamping onto her upper arm. Eva felt fear and panic seep into her veins, weighing her down, clouding her mind. The large hand spun her around so she was face to face with the predator and she let out a little cry of surprise at the too-quick motion. God, she really didn't want to die at the hands of a cowboy-vampire.

"Yes, home," Eva spat, not able to contain the contempt and hatred she felt toward him. The cowboy's other hand traced an icy line from her collarbone to her chin, sending a shiver through her.

"Wrong answer." Eva watched the cowboy eye her neck hungrily, uncontrollably so, and it was at that moment she knew the cowboy wasn't going to let her live through whatever it was he was planning on doing to her.

Eva felt rage spur up inside her and with all the strength she had, she shoved her hands against his chest. The vampire hadn't been expecting her sudden self-preservation urge and stumbled back, allowing Eva to run toward the door to the bar. On her way, she was able to bellow out one good, solid scream before the vampire was in front of her. He was angry now, far, far angrier than he was before her outburst. His hand slapped hard across her face and the pain that blossomed there was instantaneous. It felt like every bone in her face had bent from the force of the strike and then snapped back into place violently against her skin. She fell backwards, her head slamming against the pavement so painfully that the black night went white around her. Before she could come back from the shock, a hand closed tightly around her throat, hauling her to her feet like she was a puppet for his entertainment. She moaned and panted as she fumbled around on her rubbery legs while the vamp-cowboy growled both delightedly and horribly.

"Aren't so strong now are you, little human?" he hissed, drawing her face to his and smelling her neck. The way she saw it, she had two options: die silently, or die fighting. She just wished he could feel pain because she wanted to hurt him so bad it was illegal. So, ignoring the throbbing, nearly blinding pain in her head, Eva wriggled in his hold, scratching at his alabaster skin, punching, hitting, and screaming. The horrible, horrible pain behind her eyes was stalling her movements, muting her efforts and she let out a strangled sob as he easily wrestled her to the ground.

He had her pinned between his immovable mass and the rocky pavement. He was crushing her with his weight and he was quite enjoying himself. His teeth were bared and it was the most fascinating and bone-chilling thing she had ever witnessed in her-about to be cut short- life. The light from the dim parking lot lamps gleamed off those dagger sharp teeth and brought the true animal in his eyes to her notice. She felt the breath going out of her as his body left no room for her to draw a breath and suddenly she felt him drag an icy finger down a vein in her throat. The growl that traveled through him now was sadistic and animalistic and another sob escaped her. Just before he sank his teeth into her carotid artery, she let out a softer, raspier, desperate cry that echoed off the brick walls of the club. She would have to die looking up at a red, neon sign that read 'Fangtasia.' Life was so cruel.

The pain was epic as he ripped into her neck. The warm, sticky fluid that was her blood ran down her neck and into her ebony hair, matting it to her head.

"God, no," Eva whispered, trying still to shove him, but he quickly pinned her hands, laughing into her neck, his chuckle gurgling due to his mouthful of her blood. The sound silenced her and she felt her eyes flutter back into her head. With each draw he took, she could literally see her life waving goodbye.

And then, it stopped. Not the pain, the pain was still tantamount, but the pulling and the crushing weight and the gurgling laughter was gone. Somewhere to the right of her, she heard a very muffled, angry conversation. She strained to hear it, but the lines of her world were going fuzzy.

"Eric." Eva recognized that voice as the voice of her cowboy killer. His voice was laced with fear and surprise. Eva couldn't imagine what would make a man like him quiver, but that was exactly what he was doing. The man named Eric said something Eva couldn't hear because all the noise in her head was the sound of her blood pumping too fast and not fast enough at the same time. The next sound that reached her was a horrible scream and a body dropping to the pavement next to her. She forced her eyes open, staring at the moon and stars. She blinked, and suddenly, the blonde haired, blue-eyed bar owner was leaning over her. In the next second, she knew this was the same man the cowboy had called Eric. This Eric, previously known as bar owner, didn't look pleased with the situation, but the lines of his face softened into some sort of concern.

With deft hands, Eric pulled Eva's head up and looked at her wounds. Slowly, like a bathtub draining, Eva felt her consciousness slipping away. She had lost so much blood and she now felt the effects. She wouldn't see the morning.

Before she let herself slip into sweet unconsciousness, she raised a hand that felt like lead. The closeness of him to her made her feel safe, serene, at peace with her imminent death and she wanted him to know.

Quickly, like he had been summoned, his ice blue eyes snapped onto hers, waiting for her hand to reach his face. When it did, his eyes settled more gently onto hers and she felt his head lean into her palm very slightly. The edges of her vision went black and he became a beautifully framed picture before her, slipping away too quickly now. She brushed her thumb across his glass smooth cheekbone and whispered his name.

"Eric." Her voice was faint, almost inaudible but she knew by the way his face softened and tenderness flickered through his blue eyes that he had heard her. Then, darkness swelled up and dragged her down into its depths.

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Hope ya liked it,

Kate


	3. Chapter 3

Noctuary:

Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Thanks for the reviews you guys, I love them! Please keep them coming, I appreciate every single one!

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Eva came back into consciousness close to the same way she went out, her waking accompanied by darkness and a slight haze. The first thing she noticed was the lack of pavement underneath her, replaced instead by a luxurious, feather-top mattress and silky sheets. Keeping her eyes closed, she did a silent inventory of her condition. First, she started with her legs, which worked-thank god. Next was her torso. It didn't feel like she had any internal bleeding or broken ribs which she had fully expected from the sheer weight of the rock solid cowboy vampire. Her arms came next and she wiggled her fingers cautiously, really appreciating how silken and smooth the sheets actually were. They were-in a word-heavenly. Her arms obviously worked fine because she had taken to rubbing them up and down against the sheets like she was trying to make a snow angel.

As she rubbed her body around, she remembered how brutally the cowboy had hit her in the face. She distinctly remembered how her bones felt like they were stretched beyond what was natural and she moved her nose and jaw around warily, noting the normal popping of her jaw and tingling of her nose. In reality, she felt absolutely fine, perfect even. Comfortable was another word she would like to add to her description of waking up in an unknown place. At the moment, she couldn't have cared less about where she was. She was alive and she was safe as far as she could tell, because who in the right mind would waste what had to be no less than 800 thread count sheets on a hostage?

She took a deep breath through her nose and rolled over onto her side, spreading her arms out around her, stretching to her full length. Her back cracked and her toes curled and finally she let out the breath she was holding. If she didn't get up soon, she never would. Her eyes opened unwillingly and she caught a glimpse of the clock next to the bed. It was four in the afternoon and if that wasn't incentive enough to get out of bed, she didn't know what was.

Reaching over, she clicked on the bedside lamp, throwing the room into sharp focus. She stifled a gasp as she drank in the room's beautiful design. It resembled an old Swedish castle. Even though the room was dark due to the heavy, light blocking curtains, the decoration was light. The crown molding was a white, polished wood and the curtains were khaki, crisp, and flowing all the way to the floor. The floors below the high bed were a light wood, old and worn slightly from years of use. The room was absolutely beautiful.

On the stunningly upholstered chair in the corner next to the white stained armoire, was a pile of clothes and curiosity pulled her out of the bed. Eva tossed the heavy khaki and blueberry bedspread back and hopped to the ground, finding the wood to be smooth and cool underneath her bare feet.

There were two things she noticed when she stood. First, was the fact that her hair was stiff and caked with dried blood and second, she was striped of everything except her bra and underwear. She knew she should be embarrassed, enraged even, but all she felt was relief. Making a mental note to take a shower, she walked over to the clothes left out for her. As she picked up the clothes, she couldn't help but laugh with amusement. The clothes consisted of a man's white dress shirt that was pressed and completely unwrinkled, and underneath the shirt was a pair of white boxers. She was so pleasantly surprised by the simple gesture of leaving over-sized, men's clothes out that she let herself laugh. She let the laugh fill the beautiful room and she let it fill her and it felt good, it felt natural. It made her feel special, like she was untouchable, unbreakable, super-human.

Once she had thoroughly scrubbed every surface of her body from the roots of her hair to the bottom of her feet, she reluctantly turned the water off. As she wrapped herself in a white, fluffy towel, she realized she should really be more concerned about where the hell she was and how she got there. The thought had just never occurred to her because in a way, without really knowing, she had an idea of where she was. She was impressed to admit that prospectively being in the house of Eric, the bar owner vampire turned hero, didn't scare her in the slightest.

Moaning under her breath, Eva slipped back into her bra but ditched the underwear, opting instead to use the white boxers as both pants and underwear. Carefully, like she was afraid she would damage it, Eva unbuttoned the crisp, white shirt and pulled it on. The smell of the shirt was so distinctly Eric that Eva actually paused and sniffed it again, deeper this time. Not only did she now know for sure where she was, but the smell was so fantastic that she couldn't wrap her mind around it. The shirt and the boxers smelled like nothing she had ever, ever smelled before and she was almost dizzy from it.

Eva shook her head, cleaning her mind of the Eric-scented induced haze the clothing had created and stepped into the boxers. Once her mind was clear, another smell greeted her senses- coffee. That was all the cause she needed to leave her big, beautiful room and soon she was gliding down the curving staircase under a crystal-encrusted chandelier. Pictures of landscapes from a different land graced the walls on the way down the stairs and they were framed in dark wood that stood out against the light colored walls. She felt like a princess in men's boxers descending the most wonderful staircase into a high ceilinged, richly decorated foyer.

Eva followed the smell of coffee around the corner. She stood in the high, square entrance to the kitchen, smiling sweetly at the man bustling about the kitchen. He was dressed in a grey butler's uniform and when he looked over at her his return smile was warm and welcoming.

"Hello," Eva said, her voice small but friendly. The butler walked over toward her as he wiped his hands on a dishtowel.

"Miss Evalina Grey," the man greeted her, pronouncing her full name. Eva cocked her head to one side, curious as to how the man knew her full name. "How are you this morning? I hope you slept well?" he asked, ushering her over to the kitchen table with a sweep of his hand.

"I'm well, thank you," Eva answered, a silent question clear in her voice. The man just smiled deeper and pulled the chair out of her.

"Would you like some coffee, Miss Grey?" he asked, his eyebrows rising. Eva nodded her head a little absently as she watched the man walk over to the coffee pot. "Cream and sugar?" he asked and before Eva answered, a thought struck her.

"I thought vampires didn't ear or drink," she said, her voice raising an octave in question. The man's face fell into a gentle smile and he set a mug of coffee before her.

"They don't. Mr. Northman had me go out and pick up a few things for you this morning." Eva wrapped her cold hands around the warm cup and furrowed her brow, wondering if she should feel embarrassed about putting him through the trouble. The man started to walk off but Eva reached out and grabbed his arm, restraining him.

"Ah, I'm sorry," Eva said, releasing him. "But I don't remember what happened last night and I don't think I should rightly be alive at the moment and I don't know where I am or how I got here…" Eva paused when the man pulled out a seat next to her and sat down.

"Of course you'll want answers. Who wouldn't?" He finished her long sentence for her, understanding her concern. She sighed, aware that she rambled on for a minute there.

"Starting with your name?" Eva asked, sipping her coffee cautiously. It was delicious and beyond satisfying as it trickled down her throat and warmed her insides.

"I'm George," he told her, shaking her hand gently. "I work for Mr. Northman," he added. Eva nodded her head, setting the cup down and taking a breath.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice slow and a little apprehensive. Part of her wasn't fully sure if she wanted to know all the gruesome details. From what she did remember, her carotid artery had literally been ripped open and a vampire in the parking lot of a bar had mauled her. Then, before she blacked out from blood loss and pain, Eric had been leaning over her, watching her, touching her neck. She had been too fuzzy to decipher the look in his eyes then, so the effect was lost on her, but if she had to guess, she would say it bordered on concern. Just the thought of it sent a thrill through her.

"When Mr. Northman brought you home, no one thought you would survive," George started and Eva felt herself wince. He suddenly stopped, his face clouding over with worry as he reached toward Eva. "It's not easy to hear of one's life in peril. I can stop if you like," George offered gently. Eva pulled her face together, pushing her queasiness down. She wanted to know. If she didn't, she would always wonder.

"No, please, tell me," Eva said reassuringly, plastering a smile on her plush lips. George nodded.

"You weren't responsive and Mr. Northman had already coated your wound in his own blood to stop the bleeding…"

"His own blood?" Eva breathed, shocked. She didn't know how it worked for vampires, but humans did not share blood.

"A vampire's blood, especially blood as old as Mr. Nothman's, has wondrous healing powers, so he was able to seal the wound off. That didn't change the fact that you had lost far, far more blood than what is safe for a human." George paused again and looked at Eva who was staring at him with rapt attention, her hands clenched around the mug in front of her. George looked like he was searching for the correct words, but failing.

"George, then what?" Eva asked, shifting in her seat. George's tale bad become like a morbidly fascinating fairytale in which Eva had removed herself as the main character in order to stomach the tale. So far, it was working.

"You were so pale, so gaunt and lifeless and your breathing was shallow and rattling in your chest. The man that attacked you had been intent on your death. So, Mr. Northman did what he knew would save you: he gave you his blood," George said, his voice casual but he silently watched her reaction. How could he give her his blood? What did he do, wrap it up in a blood bag and tie a ribbon around it?

"He gave his blood to me?" George saw the confusion in her eyes and sighed as he thought of some way to explain her healing to her.

"He made an incision in his wrist and you drank from the cut. Only his blood could repair the damage that had been done. In less than five minutes, your color returned, the wound on your neck disappeared, and your breathing evened out." Eva's hand automatically went up to her neck where she remembered the vampire's teeth had ripped last night. The skin beneath her fingers was smooth and silky. There was no hint of her previous injury.

"Unbelievable," Eva whispered, her mind trying to wrap around the story. "Then?" Eva pressed, her eyes shooting up to George's as her hand lowered to the table.

"Mr. Northman said you'd be sleeping for a long time because your body needed to finish healing itself." George glanced at his watch. "And it's five o'clock now. Almost thirteen hours of sleep, Miss Grey, that's some kind of record," George commented, a soft smile on his face. Eva smiled too, her eyes dropping to her coffee as the story George told her whirled around in her head like a tornado. Eric had saved her life, stepped in and intervened when he had no idea who she was. For the first time since the death of her family, Evan felt a feeling greater and more powerful than grief of despair. Happiness and contentment welled up inside her; filling every open space and making her feel strangely airy. She felt like she could sink into the chair she sat in and be perfectly happy for the rest of her life. It was beyond her what Eric had done to make her feel so complete, but any feeling other than her unbreakable sorrow was a great relief.

"Eric, he…he saved my life," Eva murmured. She meant it both literally and emotionally. She didn't know how much longer she could have survived living in a state of constant pain. George smiled, a proud, paternal smile at her statement.

"Mr. Northman rises at six thirty and he has requested that I tell you that you're to stay in the house, but you're free to explore. The library is at the east end and there's a sculpture gallery a few rooms down from the library." The look of pure amazement on Eva's face made George laugh. "The house really is spectacular in every way. Mr. Northman has been around for a very, very long time and has quite the accumulation of wealth and property. I think you'll be able to entertain yourself until he wakes." Eva didn't know what to say. She got to spend the rest of the day perusing a private library and sculpture room. She was amazed at the turn out of last night's horrendous events.

"Thank you, George," Eva said and smiled at him as he got up from his seat next to her and disappeared into the other room.

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I hope you liked this. No worries, Eric galore in the next one ;)

-Kate


	4. Chapter 4

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Thank you to all the reviewers, as always! I love each and every one of them! Keep reading, hope you enjoy this chapter.

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The hallway leading down to the library was littered with paintings of people from a different time, a more elegant time. Eva traced her hand over one painting in particular depicting Eric and another man. The two were posed neatly, their stances natural and easy. The unknown man sat casually in a chair, his arm bent at the elbow and hand propped up on his knee. His irises were a deep, timeless brown that was almost indistinguishable from the pupil. Eric loomed behind him, standing so much taller with one large hand on the man's shoulder. Eric's other hand was tucked lazily behind his back. His hair was longer, almost to his shoulders and on his pretty bowed lips was a small smirk.

The painting made Eric out to be someone who was more than just a bloodthirsty shadow of the night. It made him a man with a past and a man with memories that stretched back further than several generations of her own family. She removed her hand from the smooth frame, letting only her eyes trace over the sweeping, lifelike brush strokes. It was hard to believe that Eric's face, his chiseled face, had remained so perfect for so long but the proof was right before her eyes. Here he was, staring back at her from an era long gone, forgotten by many because no human now lived who remember it.

Sighing and finally taking her eyes away from the painting, Eva resumed her walk down the hallway to the library. Even before she pulled the large double doors open, she could smell the musty, aged scent of the pages and she smiled with anticipation. As the doors fell shut behind her and the light from the chandelier spilled into the room like a golden river, Eva's mouth popped open in awe. The library was even grander than anything she had ever imagined and she had bee letting her imagination run wild on a pretty large scale.

The room was two stories, a balcony of finely crafted wooden spindles separating the floors. Books lined the walls in a complete circle that went from the right of threshold she stood in to the left. Cracked, aged leather couches and wing-backed chairs were spread throughout the lower level, over the slightly faded Persian rug that protected the beautiful wooden floors. There was a cozy sitting area arranged in front of a huge fireplace, framed in ornately hand carved wood. Chiseled carefully into the wood were dozens upon dozens of perfectly sculpted roses, frozen in their highly polished mahogany prison, beautiful and bloomed for all time.

As she ran her fingers over the spines of works by Thoreau, Dickenson, Hemmingway, and Shakespeare, she thought there was no place she'd rather be. Finally deciding on _Interview with the Vampire_, she curled up in a leather chair next to the fireplace, content.

The only way she knew that time had come and gone was by the sound of the gonging of an old grandfather clock across the room. It was now six in the evening, a half an hour before Eric woke up. Grudgingly, she uncurled herself from her position in the leather chair and set the book aside on the table next to the chair. Her joints popped at the sudden movement but warmed quickly as she strode over to the door. Before she left, she turned her head back toward the library and ran her eyes over the shelves and shelves of books, fearing she'd never have the pleasure of being lost in its wonder again.

Reluctantly, Eva pulled the doors shut and headed toward a flight of stairs to her left. She wasn't sure where she was going, but up seemed as good a direction as any. Like everything in Eric's palace, the staircase was fine and beautiful. This staircase was different than the main staircase in that it was dark and dimly lit by small lights hanging underneath the paintings.

The rooms at the top of the flight of stairs were open but darkening due to the sun disappearing beneath the horizon and Eva noticed all the doors were open except for one.

Two, large double doors shut off the room at the end of the hall. They weren't as grand or tall as the library doors, but they stood out from the other, plainer doors in the narrow hall. Eva couldn't stop herself; it was like a magnetic pull toward the doors. Her feet travelled forward without her consent and soon, she had pushed open one of the doors and slipped inside.

As she shut the door silently behind her, she was entombed by a bluish darkness that was surprisingly easy to see through. She had expected a darker room, but she seemed to be having no trouble seeing through the darkness. As she turned around slowly, her nose picked up on a strangely familiar scent that hung heavily in the air around her. The smell on the clothes alone was manageable because it was contained and eventually faded to the point where it was no longer distracting. The smell in this room was concentrated, not diluted by any other outside smell and it filled her with lust and contentment.

Fully turning around so that her back was to the door, Eva looked around, her eyes coming to rest on the expensive bureau, carelessly left open exposing a neat line of finely tailored clothes. To the right of the bureau was a couch and a couple of chairs, all leather and dark in color. The windows were concealed by heavy chocolate curtains, drawn tightly together to prevent any light from entering and suddenly, Eva knew exactly where she had wandered. Her eyes shot over to the giant bed, coming to rest on Eric's silent, sleeping form.

He looked so oddly human, so still and silent. He slept on his stomach; the covers low slung on his hips, revealing his strong, alabaster back. The darkness of the room made his skin shimmer in a strange but mesmerizing way and the muscles that lay dormant underneath that skin were clearly defined. His sleeping face was turned toward Eva and he breathed evenly. His long, toned arms were bent at the elbow, framing his face like a picture of how a God would look in slumber.

She felt a pang of guilt shoot through her for watching him sleep. He was so open and susceptible to danger, so unaware of her eyes roaming over his body. Her cheeks reddened with quilt as she turned away toward the door to leave. When she did, instead of seeing the dark wood of the door, she saw a white, marble chest. A small cry of surprise escaped her lips as two strong hands came down on her upper arms. His fingers were firm as they dug into her skin in a way that would definitely leave bruises. Still guilty, she kept her eyes downcast, focusing on both his and her own matching bare feet. Eric stayed quiet for a moment and the only noise in the room was the irregular thumping of her racing heart and her quick breathing. She could feel his ice blue eyes on her with exactly the same pressure as his fingers were digging into her arms. It was almost enough to drive her insane.

"Look at me, Evalina," Eric murmured, his voice smooth and silken as he willed her eyes up to his. Eventually Eva raised her head to look up, way up, at him. Her head was almost all the way back on her neck and he seemed amused that she was so small. His eyes were even more stunning than she remembered from last night. They were pale; a stark contrast against his blacker than night pupils, and there was no ring around his irises so the light blue seemed to leak into the whites of his eyes. "What are you doing in my room, Evalina?" Eric asked, his tone playful and purring seductively. Eva found herself at a loss for words until pain bloomed across her upper arms where Eric's fingertips still reigned supreme over her circulation.

"You're hurting me," Eva pointed out, her voice stubbornly firm and Eric's amusement only heightened, but he loosened his grip just slightly. "Thank you," Eva sniffed, nodding her head once for effect. She kept her mouth shut, hoping he would forget he ever asked her a question, but the look in his eyes told her he was searching for the answer. She looked away and apparently down was her go to direction because she dropped her eyes downward faster than he could speak again. When she did, a lovely sight greeted her eyes. Eric wore nothing but a pair of black briefs- of course- and his muscles literally rippled against the elastic band.

"Evalina." Eric's smooth voice snapped her back from her appreciation of his newly awakened form. When their eyes met, he looked so playful she thought his next move was tackling her to the bed and tickling her until she cried. "I won't ask you again," Eric cooed, bringing his face so close to Eva's that their noses almost touched. So much for personal space. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again. What was she going to say? 'I was just wandering around your house and poking my head into rooms I shouldn't.'

"You're door was shut." It sounded more like a question and Eric's lips actually lifted into a smile. He released her arms and Eva breathed again, reaching up to rub the spot where his fingers had been as Eric walked across the room.

"There's a reason doors are shut," Eric purred, looking back over his bare shoulder at her and pushing his rumpled blonde hair out of his eyes. Eva pivoted near the door and faced him. He glided over to his bureau and pulled out a pair of dark jeans and a black v-neck shirt. Before she could see what happened, the lights flicked on and Eric was fully dressed, in front of her once again. He stood still and stared into her eyes for a long, silent moment before stepping forward. He was pleasantly surprised when she firmly stood her ground, unbothered by the physical proximity.

"What's making you so sad, Evalina?" Because she hadn't been expecting such a personal, blunt question, her mind immediately jumped to the core of her sadness, the heart of her sorrow, and all the dams she had secured crumbled in her surprise. Eric didn't miss the way her face went from hesitant fascination to unbridled agony and at that moment, he felt her rush of emotion. Thanks to the bond they now shared, her every feeling was thrust upon him, something he had always been able to easily ignore with others. But her emotion was simply unlike anything he'd ever felt, or something he hadn't felt in hundreds of years. It momentarily incapacitated him, causing him to stumble forward very subtly. Then, as her emotions crossed over from consuming sadness to concern for him, he felt nothing.

Her hands on his arms were warm, soothingly so, and she wrapped her dainty fingers around what part of his bicep they could manage. His head was bent down so close to her head that his stray blonde hairs got lost under her ebony mane. Her curls spilled over her shoulders and onto his arms and hands. The sensation against his skin was distracting to say the very least.

His brief episode had allowed her to push all her emotions back behind a makeshift wall for the time being. There was still a lump in her throat that always preceded a storm of tears, but she ignored it.

"Eric," she whispered and his ice blue eyes connected with hers, intense and prodding like he was reading her mind.

"Tell me," he breathed, his voice slightly accented from an unknown culture. His face was so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her cheeks, blowing back rogue strands of hair. He watched intently as her black eyebrows pulled together and felt her small hands tighten around his biceps. He was excited to see the embodiment of her building anger and she didn't disappoint.

Her flawless cheeks flushed a pretty pink color that reminded him of a freshly bloomed carnation and her plush, bowed lips pursed into a harsh line. The strange, pewter color of her eyes hardened into a stony fury and she narrowed them so she was staring at him through dark slits lined by two rows of thick, black lashes. Her face was even more beautiful in anger, if that was at all possible.

"Why does it matter to you? Why do you care?" she hissed, her voice low and acidic. Eric watched her, trying to control his urge to smile at her anger as she worked herself up. "Why would it matter to you that my parents, my brothers, my sister, are dead? Why do you care?" The words tumbled from her mouth like a gush of water through a crack. The pressure was released in one quick rush that left her eyes watering and her body slack. Eric reached out to grab her before her body hit the ground. She looked down at his chest, putting her palm where his heart rested, still and silent. He felt the softness of her touch and the all consuming, heaviness of her deep-rooted sorrow, but this time he was prepared to bear the burden.

"You don't understand," she whispered, her eyes rising to look into his. His arms were wrapped securely around her and she was curled into the left side of him, her hand still gentle on his chest. "You don't understand how it feels to have your heart break, but how could you? It's still and lifeless," she said, her tone slightly envious of his stone heart.

Eric stayed quiet as Eva pulled herself together. Little did she know that Eric could feel every pang of jealousy she felt, every moment of endless worry or fear. It was all there for him to explore as e chose. Had she known, she would have done a better job reining her emotions in.

Eventually, Eva's small hand slid away from Eric's heart, leaving the sweetest warm sensation in its wake. He was almost sorry to lose the source of heat. Eva took a shaky breath, closing her eyes. Eric could almost feel her stitching up the ripped seams inside of her.

"I'm…so sorry." He heard Eva whisper her apology very slowly, as if the realization of her sentence had just registered. Her eyes remained glued on his sturdy chest, wide and unseeing. "I didn't mean to sound so cruel," she hummed, her voice heavy with remorse. She glanced up at his eyes and felt relief when he stared down at her with that same amusement he always looked at her with.

Slowly, so as not to disturb the calm that had finally settled over her, Eric righted her tiny body so she was standing on her own. She took a step backwards as he set her down gently and smoothed out her shirt. Eric watched and smiled down at her.

"My clothes become you," he purred seductively, as if the only thing he thought about the clothes was how much better they would look on the ground. Eva ran her hands slowly over the front of the shirt, watching as his eyes followed the trail and smiled.

"Thank you, by the way," Eva said, her gratefulness extending beyond just the clothes. She knew Eric understood because he nodded his head slightly, running his eyes up and down her exposed legs.

"You'll have to come with me tonight," Eric told her suddenly, his glacial blue eyes rising to hers. She didn't know if he was being deliberately vague or not, but she had no idea what he wanted. Her confusion was clear on her face. "To the bar. I have business to tend to," Eric clarified. A sickening fear gripped her stomach painfully as she remembered last night's events at the bar. Her emotions translated quickly to him and he cracked an arrogant smile. "Don't worry, my little teacup human, as long as you're with me, you're safe," Eric soothed in a velvet voice. Her fear died down at the logic behind his words and she saw him lean closer, bending over a great deal to bring his face level with hers. "I hope that one unfortunate experience won't put you off vampires forever," he breathed, his ice blue eyes melting into hers and she felt her heart stutter in her chest. She narrowed her dusty pewter eyes at him and brought her face as close to his as she could without actually kissing him.

"We'll see," she murmured and one of Eric's blonde eyebrows rose in interest. Eric's smile was almost paralyzing as it flashed across his face like the most stunning white-hot bolt of lightening. He jerked his head slowly at the door, a motion telling her to go and make herself presentable. He didn't have to say it; she knew what he wanted.

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Let me know how you liked it!

-Kate


	5. Chapter 5

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Hey guys, sorry this took so long.. SCHOOL AH! hope you like the chapter, thanks for the reviews last time, i love the feedback!!

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She wasn't sure how it happened, and honestly, she was beyond questioning anything that happened in Eric's house, but when she returned to her room, there were clothes laid out neatly on her bed. For a moment, Eva stood still, her shoulders hunched and eyelids heavy as she stared down at the clothes in exasperation. Eva had literally been thrust into an absolutely bizarre, supernatural world where humans' worst fears walked among them, unabashed. One day she was living completely oblivious to vampires, having never met or even laid eyes on one before, and now she was holed up in one's house, wearing one's clothes, filled with one's blood.

It wasn't so much that she disliked that position she was in, it was the fact that she was suffering information overload. The things she saw, the horrors she had lived-thankfully-through, realistically shouldn't exist. Her eyes had seen it, her hands had felt it, her body had reacted to it, but her mind, already frayed to begin with, struggled to keep up. Not only was she physically tired, which was only to be expected after a night like the last, but she was mentally exhausted.

Still, despite her fatigue and exasperation, her curiosity was intense and emboldening. She may have felt lost and confused, but she was inexplicably attracted to this new race of people, or species, rather. It was safe to say that the one particular man that attracted her interest was the man who had sparked her exhaustion. He was also the one who had laid the expensive looking clothes out on the bed.

Eva snapped back into reality, centering he attention on the clothes before her. She ran her hand over the cloth: silk, what a surprise. She didn't think Eric ever did anything the easy, or the cheap way. The outfit was a black, silk pantsuit that appeared to be tailored to her personal size, and it was lovely. When she pulled off Eric's clothes, she felt a pang of regret. Given the opportunity, she could have spent the entire day in Eric's sweet smelling clothes, and probably the night as well.

Everything that went with the outfit was all provided for her, right down to the bra and underwear, which were in the style of a strapless black bustier and lacey black underwear. Unsurprisingly, they were her size and in her taste. Ridiculous.

She slipped easily into the under things and then into the pantsuit. It fit her small frame like a glove. The thin straps of the halter tied gracefully behind her neck, the neckline dipping low. The fabric still remained tight around her chest and stomach and around her back. Below her accentuated waist, the legs billowed out in beautifully pressed pleats. The pants weren't too long or too short, and by the time Eva stepped into the deep burgundy stilettos next to the bed, she felt like her body was made to wear this outfit and not the other way around.

Across the room, on one of the upholstered chairs, was her quilted patent leather clutch. Inside was what little makeup she had and she glided over to the bathroom to apply some. Thank god she had tossed in the powder as an after thought as well as a tinted moisturizer. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to get the part right and she looked at herself closer in the mirror. Was it her or did she actually look…prettier? The difference was minor, but she saw a slight difference in the bow of her lips and the color and fervor of her eyes.

Eva shook her head. Now she was really going insane. She took her eyes off the mirror and glanced at the clock. It was almost eight thirty. For a minute, she debated on whether or not to keep Eric waiting, but she thought that might lead to unnecessary problems. So, she collected herself and walked confidently out of the bathroom, and thus, out of the room and down the stairs.

From the top stair, Eva could see Eric standing patiently in the foyer, his back to her. He looked dapper in his sleek, black suit and black shirt. His light blonde hair was a different sight than its rumpled state when she saw him upon his waking. It was expertly slicked back from his proud forehead, not a hair out of place. When she took the first step down the stairs, Eric stopped fussing with his cuff and turned to watch her descent.

His eyes locked onto her, running hungrily up and down her body. The feeling she got when his eyes were on her was so much different than when any other man looked at her. When Eric looked at her, she felt like she was being completely absorbed, taken in like a cool drink on a hot day. But there was an underlying hint of fear and a thrill of danger as he tracked her progress. Absolute power radiated from him and it was not lost on her. She loved his eyes on her; she loved the feeling of absolute excitement and desire he instilled in her. So, she stared back, trailing her eyes down the smooth wood of the banister as she walked. His glacial blue eyes burned deep into hers, possessive and gleaming with a hidden agenda.

"I didn't think you could look any more stunning than you did in my clothes," Eric hummed, taking Eva's hand as she stepped onto the hardwood ground. "But I see I was wrong," he said, drawing a smile from Eva. Even with an extra four inches, Eric still towered over her, having to bend over to look directly into her eyes.

"I suppose I have you to thank for that…again," Eva said, running a hand through her thick mane of hair. Eric watched her small fingers push the black strands back out of her strange colored eyes and followed the curls down her shoulders and over her breasts. Her hair was beautiful and free and Eric had to suppress the odd urge to reach out and touch it. Everything about her was drawing him to her whether she knew it or not. Her black, inky hair, her flawless complexion, her strong, unusual personality, and most definitely those sultry, pewter orbs. The color of her eyes was something he had never seen before and he had been around. The strange but alluring pewter was a contrast against her nighttime hair and lashes. Evalina Grey was something different, and in his centuries of walking the earth, Eric hadn't met a woman who was both timelessly beautiful and genuinely interesting. So few women excited him, so few were able to conquer his easily wandering interest, which left him even less attentive to all the other women. It was true that he had begun that downward spiral away from humanity and towards some unfeeling, stoic creature he had never really meant to become. Somehow, this woman, this Evalina Caroline Grey, was igniting that long extinguished fire of humanity deep inside him. He knew a human should not have the ability to stir such emotions in him, but she did and for some unknown reason, he allowed them.

"You're welcome," Eric replied, still holding her hand. She thrilled to the fact that he hadn't released her yet, but she kept her face calm and lovely. "Shall we?" Eric ushered her towards the front doors, pulling one open and leading her through. Eva's eyes rested on the car parked proudly in the driveway and couldn't help but chuckle. Eric followed her gaze and smiled. Without taking her eyes off the red-hot corvette, Eva spoke.

"What's so great about the car is that it's exactly what I pictured you driving." Eva's eyes smiled as Eric blurred forward to open the passenger side door for her. She tucked herself into the seat and Eric laughed lightly as she gasped in surprise when he appeared in the driver's seat not a second later.

"The car suits me well enough," Eric said off-handedly, starting up the engine and smiling as it purred smoothly under the hood. Eva smiled and rolled her eyes but no sooner had she done that than Eric stepped on the gas and pulled out of the driveway. Eva reached out and braced herself on the glove compartment as Eric shot down the street like a bullet from a gun. He glanced over at her, his face calm and amused at her distress and a smile crept onto hi lips. "Where's your seatbelt, my little tea cup human?" Eric joked, smirking at her need for one and his obvious safety without one. Eva grumbled something under her breath but reached back and grabbed her seatbelt, clicking it in place. She hated to admit it, but she did feel safer. Eric stepped on the gas once again and they shot down the road like a red streak against the darkness.

"Do you always drive like a complete maniac?" Eva complained lightly and Eric's lips twitched in the shadow of a smile.

"Only when humans are in the car," Eric joked and cast another glance her way. Eva made an uninterested sound low in her throat that she knew Eric would hear. There was a moment of silence when Eva looked down at her hands and Eric kept his eyes on the road. She felt anxiety rise up inside her at the thought of returning to the bar and her heart started to thump harder and faster.

"You're nervous," Eric commented, his voice curious, even thought he knew the statement to be true. He could hear her heart run rapidly, smell the rushing of her blood in her veins. Eva stayed silent for a moment, her eyes still on her hands, unfocused and distant with the memory of fear she felt from last night.

"Yes," she affirmed finally, looking up and into Eric's eyes. Suddenly, Eva noticed the car was stopped and they were in the parking lot of Fangtasia. The red neon light poured into the car and cast an eerie glow on Eric's alabaster skin. He was openly staring at her, his eyes barely narrowed and lips lightly pursed. She could tell that he didn't like her fear toward his bar, it was clear on his face. For some reason, Eva wanted to reach up and brush her fingers along his jaw line.

"It's only natural I suppose," Eric mused, his brow furrowing slightly as he looked at her. Then quick, so she couldn't see, he was outside her now open door, leaning down so his face was level with hers and putting his hands on either side of her. "But you will believe me when I say that you're safe with me." He paused. "Won't you." It wasn't a question it was a statement. His voice was lyrical and he smelled ever sweeter than he did before, if that was at all possible. Eva's pewter eyes traced his face a bit skeptically but in the end she nodded up and down slowly, her eyes locked on his. "Good," Eric said, his voice rough and gravelly. He stood, removing his hands from either side of her and offering one to help her out of the car. She took it after a long moment and Eric pulled her easily and quickly from the seat, shutting the door before she could squirm back inside. He was right to do so, because she wanted noting more than to get back in and lock him outside. Not that a mere lock would do much to stop him. It would maybe slow him down for the three seconds it took him to decide whether he wanted to rip the door off his prized possession.

Eric's grip was firm because he sensed her urge, smelled her fear, felt her apprehension. He clicked the lock button on the keys and those two little beeps put an end to Eva's hoping. Instead of kicking and screaming against Eric, she pulled herself together and allowed herself to be dragged in the direction of the door, albeit, not without some difficulty. She leaned back slightly, digging her heels into the pavement as they took each step and it didn't go without Eric's notice. Eric glared over his shoulder at her, eyebrows arched and lips pursed.

"Pick up the pace, sweetness, or I'll pick you up," he warned, his voice sickly sweet. His eyes were still on her and she instantly narrowed her own eyes at his insistence. Futilely, Eva tried to shake Eric's hand off and dug her heels into the pavement. The catch was, Eva's body stopped, but Eric's kept going. So, with a quick tug, Eva's body fell forward, her hand still imprisoned by Eric's much bigger, and much stronger one. In one motion, Eric had pulled Eva forward with one hand, catching her falling frame easily with his free arm. As she was falling, Eva let out a muffled cry of surprise and squeezed her eyes shut to wait for the impact.

Instead of the hard ground, she landed in Eric's arms, sweet smelling air rushing up around her as her face brushed against his suit jacket. She felt Eric's mouth on her ear, cold and soft as he whispered.

"You're making me late, Evalina," Eric murmured roughly in her ear, lifting her completely in his arms and striding effortlessly to the door. Eva crossed her arms childishly and fumed up at him. To her surprise and irritation, Eric had the audacity to look calm. She was pissed.

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Thanks guys! really hope you liked it! Let me know what you think

-Kate


	6. Chapter 6

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Hey guys, hope you like the new chapter! Review, review, review!!

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"Put me down," she demanded hotly, her chin bucking up stubbornly and Eric's eyes twinkled again with that same damn amusement. "Hey, Eric," Eva said again, wriggling a little in his grasp, her brow furrowing. By the time she had thought of something colicky to say, she and Eric were already inside the bar. He felt her stiffen in his grasp, her fight draining away, replaced by fear and trepidation. They were at the back of the bar where the employees came in for work, but she still felt her heart pound painfully in her chest. Eric must have felt it too because he set her down gently, staring at the left side of her chest where her heart thumped loudly.

Eva looked around. She was in the back hallways of Fangtasia among the blood red walls and tacky pictures and phrases. Even so, she couldn't help but feel like she was in danger. She felt like she was walking into the lion's den for the second time. She kept her eyes locked on the ground and away from Eric or anything else for that matter.

"Evalina, look at me please," Eric lulled, his voice soothing, but she kept her eyes on the ground. Frustrated with her resistance, Eric nudged her chin up with his curled index finger. Her head bumped up and his eyes looked into hers, serious and intensely azure. "I never make promises I can't keep," he said, his voice low. He didn't wait for a reply this time; he simply reached for her hand and pulled her alongside him and toward his office. Eva stumbled slightly to catch up with him but eventually fell into step.

The inside of Eric's office was a bit tacky, a far cry from his beautiful estate. But there were subtle hints of class here and there. It looked a little out of place, but characteristic when Eric mingled among his things. Sitting on his desk, rustling through a stack of papers idly was a beautiful blonde woman. Eva recognized the blonde as the woman carding people at the front of the bar last night, and as the woman looked at her, an eyebrow shot up.

"Pam, this is Evalina Grey," Eric introduced, pulling Eva in front of him from her safe position behind him. Pam stood and sashayed over to her, coming to a stop a few feet in front of Eva, hands on hips.

"Yes, I remember. You look worlds better than last night." Eva couldn't help but purse her lips and look a tad exasperated at the remembrance of last night. Pam's blue eyes shot up to Eva's raven hair then back to her eyes. "I see you've washed all the blood out of your hair," she said, probably the closest she could come to a good-natured ribbing, Eva suspected.

"Good to meet you too, Pam," Eva said, an eyebrow rising in challenge. For a moment, the two women stood facing each other, sizing each other up, staring farther than the surface. Eva refused to back down and Pam's face finally creased beautifully into a satisfied smile.

"I don't like many humans," Pam said, then paused and rethought her sentence. "I don't like any humans. But you," Pam started, eyeing Eva up and down a bit dully, "I like," Pam commented, pointing a red, painted finger her way. Eric's face split into an entertained smirk at seeing Pam and Eva face off.

"Pam, take Evalina to the bar. I have some business to tend to back here for a while." Eva's face fell and she turned on him, her black brows knitting tightly together. Eric stared over her head at Pam and said something in a language Eva didn't understand. Before she could ask what he said, Pam was behind her, pulling her out of the room with her.

"You better have told her to call the security detail, you damn vampire!" Eva yelled toward the room as Pam pulled her down the hallway. Even if she hadn't yelled at full volume, he would have heard her, but it wouldn't have made her feel as satisfied.

As Eva glanced up at Pam, she saw the vampire was smiling, genuinely smiling.

"No one talks to Eric like that, Miss Grey," Pam said without looking at her. "He must really have something of a soft spot for you. Considering you're still alive," Pam said with the intention of shaking Eva's cool a bit, but Eva just sighed and shook her head.

"Well probably not for long," Eva muttered under her breath as Pam pushed the door to the main floor open and released Eva at the same time. Pam steered her toward the payphones near the bathrooms and held up two, shining quarters.

"What makes you think Eric would conduct his business meetings and leave you unprotected and alone at a vampire bar?" Pam almost laughed as she dropped the quarters into Eva's open palm and rested a hand on her hip. "Besides," Pam said, inspecting her find red nails idly. "No sane vampire would come within ten feet of you. Eric's scent is all over you," she commented, her sky blue eyes coming up to Eva's. Eva cocked her head to one side, still eyeing Pam, and hummed skeptically. Pam rolled her eyes and motioned toward the phone on the wall. "Your friend, the blonde, has been calling the bar since we opened this evening looking for you. It would behoove you to call her back and let her know you're alive." Eva gasped with a start, suddenly remembering that she had friends and a life outside of the vampire bar. If she knew Whitney at all, and she did, she was probably half crazed with worry.

Eva spun around toward the payphone and slipped the quarters in the slot while Pam leaned back against the wall next to her. Eva dialed the number quickly and the phone rang a record two times before Whitney answered.

"Hello?" Whitney's voice sounded a bit frazzled and shaky and Eva prepared herself for the storm that was about to strike.

"Hey, Whit, It's Eva," she said meekly like a child confessing to breaking a lamp playing baseball in the house. There was a beat of silence, and then the storm began.

"Where the hell have you been, Evalina? And what are you calling from, a payphone? Jesus Christ, you've been unreachable for hours and hours!" Eva shot a look over to Pam's highly amused expression and gave her a hard look.

"I'm fine, yes, it's a payphone," Eva offered, still a bit sheepishly. Whitney made a noise on the other end of the phone that sounded like she was about to keep yelling but checked herself.

"Where are you even?" Whitney asked, her voice frustrated but curious. Again, Eva turned her head towards Pam and found Pam looking back at her with rapt attention. The blonde vampire nodded her head, a go-ahead for Eva to give away her location.

"Uh," Eva started, high-pitched and drawn out. "The bar," she finally admitted, her tone still pitchy. Pam looked like she might laugh. Might.

"You're still at the vampire bar?" Whitney asked, her voice eerily dull, borderline disbelieving.

"If I said yes, how pissed would you be, scale of 1 to 10…" Eva asked jokingly, but really not. She was trying to keep the situation light because she really didn't want to shoulder the full force of Whitney's rage.

"Eva! How could you stay there and not tell anyone! I have been worried for hours," Whitney chided hotly.

"It's a long, long…very long story that I have every intention of sharing with you. Just not right at this moment," Eva said, her voice sweet and quick.

"Did you go home with the owner?" Eva was both embarrassed by the question and shocked that Whitney's anger had taken a complete 180. This time, Eva didn't have to look over at Pam to know her face was blooming with hilarity.

"Well that's one way of putting it," Eva mumbled and rolled her eyes as Whitney squealed with excitement. Her sentence was a high-pitched, laughter laced mess of girly nonsense that Eva really didn't have the energy to reciprocate at the moment. "Okay, okay, Whit, I have to go now, Eric's assistant is giving me the wrap it up signal," Eva lied, throwing a glance over to Pam as she raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

"Okay, promise to call me when you get home?" Whitney demanded rather than asked.

"Promise. I'll call you then."

"Okay. Love you," Whitney said.

"Love you," Eva replied, hanging up the phone. She turned toward Pam again and the blonde seemed genuinely amused.

"You're one good liar, Miss Grey," Pam complimented, and Eva took it for what it was.

"She would never have let me go and I didn't want to keep you waiting because Whitney can't stop talking about how gorgeous the 'bar owner' is," Eva prattled, actually putting bar owner in air quotes. Pam's face looked far-off for a moment and Eva kept quiet, hoping maybe she would let on to what had her so thoughtful.

"I miss the strangest things about being human," Pam started, still smiling, but shaking her head so her curls fell around her shoulders. Eva caught her eyes finally and smiled at her, a challenge.

"Pam, I'm not nearly as smart, witty, or quick as you, but I'll argue with you any day of the week." Eva couldn't imagine why a simple human argument had Pam so thoughtful, but she sensed her loss, and wanted to acknowledge it somehow. Pam's face became soft and she inclined her head only slightly, recognizing the contest Eva posed. Eva also inclined her head, following Pam as she gestured her toward the bar.

"I have to make sure no overly curious jailbait humans sneak in here. The bar is open, consider it your playground." Pam swept her hand in the air gracefully, showcasing the bottles of alcohol behind the counter. Pam dropped her hand and turned on her heel, beginning to walk away before turning back toward Eva. "And Miss Grey, try and stay out of trouble," Pam added deadpan and sauntered away. Eva snorted a quite unladylike laugh and Pam disregarded it and kept on walking. Eva sighed, turning toward the bar and deciding to make the most of her free alcohol tab as humanly, and she did mean humanly, possible.

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Let me know what you thought!

-Kate


	7. Chapter 7

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry/ (?;135),n.[L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Hey guys! thanks for the reviews! I love love love them...sorry it took me a little longer than usual, but I really hop you enjoy this chapter and as always, review it and let me know what you think!!

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"Bartender," Eva called jokingly, sliding onto a barstool up at the counter, remembering how kind the bartender had been then night before. He appeared suddenly, out of nowhere like all vampires seemed to do around the club, and laughed a low, gravelly laugh.

"Little Miss Human," he greeted her, setting aside the glass he was drying to lean his elbows on the bar across from her. "Back so soon?" he asked, his voice mildly surprised as he arched a single, dark eyebrow.

"Mm," Eva hummed dully, her eyebrows rising in an irritated fashion that didn't escape the bartender's notice. "Not by choice, let me assure you," Eva nearly growled and the bartender got a good, hearty laugh at her sentence, shaking her head.

"Eric always gets what Eric wants," he said thoughtfully, pulling a friendly, knowing face. If Eva didn't know any better, she would say that this bartender knew Eric on another level other than just employer-employee. Eva's pewter eyes narrowed at him and he noticed the intuition flash brilliantly across her face.

"How do you know Eric?" Eva asked curiously, extracting a somewhat shocked expression from the bartender's face. "Oh, come on, bartender. No one around here refers to him as plain old Eric for fear of their lives," Eva chided him lightly, laughing a good-natured laugh. The bartender's face fell into an easy smile and he nodded, conceding to her accusation.

"I've known Eric for half a century at least," the bartender confessed, his face reminiscent. "I told him I would come down here and help with the bar, which is doing better than we ever expected," he said and glanced around the nearly crowded bar. The bar was alive-ha-with people and movement. Eva sat silently for a moment, absorbing the small amount of information she had acquired about Eric's mysterious past. For some reason, it made him seem more real, more fastened to humanity even though he wasn't quite human himself. The small tidbit gave Eric a much-needed dimension that he was lacking. To her, he was simple. He was Eric the vampire, bar-owner, hero. He had no past, no future, only what was happening at that exact moment.

But now, she had another piece of the puzzle, a morsel of Eric's past and suddenly she didn't feel as alone as she did when she entered the vampire bar.

"How about a drink, little human?" the bartender asked, breaking through her reverie.

"Yes, that sounds wonderful," Eva replied, lacing her fingers together on the counter daintily. The bartender's gentle face creased into a smile once again as he turned away from her to mix a drink. He seemed uncharacteristically kind for a bloodthirsty vampire. His face was just as smooth and marble white; his speed was just as untraceable, his heart was just as still, but he was unique in that his heart didn't seem it. This man had managed to retain as much of his humanity as possible and it put her at ease.

"Here you are," he said proudly and slid amber colored liquid her way. Eva picked it up, twirled it around a little, sniffed it, and finally took a sip.

"This tastes expensive, bartender," Eva commented, narrowing her eyes as he laughed.

"It damn well should. It's Eric's best brandy." Eva eyed the glass smugly and took another satisfying sip.

"In that case, leave the bottle where it's easily accessible. I have a feeling it's going to be another long night."

"Whatever you say, little human." The bartender winked playfully at her before blurring away to tend to some of the other patrons.

After a couple of blissfully drunken hours, Eva had managed to relax to the point where the bar actually looked interesting rather than terrifying. Eva had stayed put, snuggled contentedly into her corner of the bar and away from the slowly diminishing crowd. She hadn't seen hide or hair of Eric and had the pleasure of routine check ups from Pam during her drinking extravaganzas with Eric's most expensive brandy. Not that she was all that sore about not seeing Eric; she had managed to entertain herself by watching the diverse crowd of people on the dance floor, hanging over the bar, and lounging seductively on the leather couches. But now the bar was emptying and she just couldn't quite keep up with the patrons of the night, not to mention how counterproductive the brandy was being.

Everyone was beginning to leave alone and pissed off or happily paired with a partner. She watched them all pair off like silent teams as the night progressed, dancing together, running curious hands over each other until the bartender announced final call. After that, people and vampires alike had scuttled away quickly, leaving only a handful of stragglers left.

As Eva held her arms above her head, pulling her spine straight in a much-needed stretch, she felt a cold grip wrap around her fisted hands midair. She would have panicked had she not smelled Eric's sweet scent wash cleanly over her. Her arms were stalled, held extended in the air and her upper body was forced to remain ramrod straight.

"Did you enjoy yourself tonight, Evalina?" Eric's voice was low and his lips were pressed against her ear. Eva struggled in his grasp, wriggling her hips on the barstool and finally pulling her hands free. The blood came rushing back to her arms as she swiveled around on the stool to face him. He stood tall in front of her, so close that she had to maneuver her knees so they were in between his legs. She leaned back on the bar with her elbows and raised her chin to look up at him. He looked tired-or more tired than he did when they left. He had discarded the grey suit coat and rolled up the sleeves on his black, silk shirt. His hair, once expertly slicked back, fell into his face in shiny golden strands. His stance was casual, hands in pockets and shoulders relaxed and straight. She couldn't help the small smile that broke on her face.

He liked the way she took him in, absolutely devoured the very sight of him and he didn't mind that she remained silent as she did. It only entranced him further.

"You have excellent taste in brandy, I see," Eric commented, unruffled that she had knocked back a good third of his best brandy. "It was my favorite," he said, his voice low and seductive, giving Eva a shiver of lust.

"It kept me occupied," she told him, smiling as he raised a brow. He looked down at her for a long moment, completely still and unmoving in a way, she was coming to learn, only a vampire could be. His blue irises took in every angle of her face, measuring her fatigue in the soft lavender color under her dusty, pewter eyes.

"You're tired," he murmured, a sly smile creeping onto his pretty mouth. He seemed amused-which was his constant reaction toward her lately- that she looked exhausted.

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing about you," Eva countered and Eric smiled again, this time showing his straight, white teeth. Keeping the smile on his face, Eric leaned forward so that his nose was level his hers. He couldn't help but notice how Eva stayed seated comfortable in the same position as he got closer. He remembered her less than friendly reaction to the previous vampire who made the attempt to get close to her, and he smiled even wider.

"What makes you think that my species tires?" Eric challenged her, a spark of desire igniting in his eyes. Eva narrowed her eyes at him and pursed her lips. His closeness didn't bother her in the slightest but it did stir up some other emotions. Pushing them down so she could focus, she inched even closer to him, a challenge.

"Well for one, your species sleeps during the day, all day." Eric nodded his head slowly, closing his eyes and then reopening them to look at her smug face.

"With point one comes point two," he guessed, his voice husky and low and Eva had to count to three mentally in order to be able to continue her speech.

"And two," she began, raising her hand to his face and running her index finger slowly and gently across the lavender shadows underneath his eyes. "The bags under your eyes have gotten darker than usual," Eva finished, letting her finger linger momentarily before retracting it and dropping it back to her lap.

"Very observant of you," Eric said, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Eva shrugged one bar shoulder under Eric's intense gaze. He removed his eyes from the smooth skin of her shoulder to her weary face, tracing his eyes over all the different angles, planes, and lines of it. "Looks like you're having a hard time running with the vampires, sweetness," Eric said and this time, Eva didn't have the energy to counter his statement. She merely sighed and closed her eyes, a small smile appearing on her plush red lips.

"You vampires run very fast," Eva said, opening her eyes and resting them steadily on Eric. He pulled his face away from hers; straightening and pushing his blonde hair back away from his forehead.

"Come along, my little teacup human," Eric murmured, holding a large hand out toward her, palm up, fingers stretched out. Eva slid gracefully off the bar stool and reached out for his hand, reacting to his cold fingers wrapping around it. Her small hand became enveloped in his grip but somehow it fit comfortably. She found herself being pulled in the direction of the back door and she let him lead the way.

Eric's stride was slower than it had been when they arrived and she was sure that was due to her sheer inability to walk any faster and not his fatigue. She folded herself into the passenger seat unceremoniously, her head rolling against the leather headrest as she shut her eyes. Eric was next to her in the driver's seat in an instant, watching her as he started the car. As he pulled out of the parking lot he could hear her heart slow down, even out, and finally beat out a natural rhythm of slumber.

He looked from the road to her smooth face. She was facing him; her dark, long lashes a thick curtain that dusted against her cheekbones. Her still scarlet lips were slightly parted, the tips of her straight teeth showing as her warm breath broke against his neck. She looked so beautiful in slumber, so relaxed and uninhibited. For some strange reason, this small human woman's peacefulness made him smile a contented smiled. He shook his head and directed his eyes back on the road ahead, bewildered but too mentally exhausted to understand what that actually meant.

He wasn't surprised when Eva didn't stir as he picked her up, carried her inside and laid her in the same bed she had woken up in that morning. As he laid her down on the comforter, Eva moaned lightly and rolled over toward him. Eric stood at the side of her bed for a long moment with his hands in his pockets as he watched her eyes roll from side to side underneath her eyelids. He smiled softly; she was dreaming.

"Mr. Northman?" Eric's head turned in the direction of George's voice before he actually moved his eyes to look at him.

"Yes, George," Eric murmured very quietly.

"Shall I stock the kitchen again?" George asked. Eric furrowed his brow, turning his head back toward Eva's sleeping face. He felt what could only be described as inner-turmoil. First there was the question of whether or not he wanted her to stay. The answer to that was surprisingly easy and if he wanted her to stay, he could simply keep her in his possession. But all of that didn't matter if she wanted to leave.

"No, George," Eric answered mutedly, his voice strange even to his own ears. "Tomorrow morning when she wakes up, take her home. I'll have Pam check on her later," Eric told him, watching as Eva's body moved in time with her even breathing. He saw George nod his head out of the corner of his eye and then disappear from the doorway.

Eric remained in Eva's room until the sun started to creep up over the horizon. There was something so strange about the way Eva made him feel. It was all so human and forgotten, long forgotten. He wanted to keep her there, safely in that exact bed, forever. He wanted to have her, entirely, every single inch of her until the edges of her existence blurred into his. But why?

As the first signs of morning light dulled the dark corners of the room until they were a softer blue, Eric moved for the first time in hours. He didn't have to figure out why he wanted her-needed her-so much. He had time.

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Let me know how you liked it! Thanks guys!

-Kate


	8. Chapter 8

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Hey guys! I really hope you like this...I was absolutely thrilled by your reviews on the last chapter and can only hope i receive the same feedback for this one. As always, your reviews mean a lot to me and I take each one to heart...so thanks a million for them!! -Enjoy!

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It was cold when Eva woke up. A shiver ran through her before she noticed she was completely uncovered and still wearing the outfit from last night. Groaning, Eva rolled over to the opposite pillow. Confusion stilled her motion as she heard the sound of paper crinkling underneath her. She swore quietly and sat up, reaching for the lamp. The light came on and she plucked the crumpled piece of paper off of the pillow. In beautiful, bold script, a short note was written for her.

Evalina,

Sleep well. I won't be far.

-E.

Upon finishing the note, Eva found herself smiling. It was the exact, vague note/warning she would expect from Eric and she quite liked receiving it.

The clock read two in the afternoon and she pocketed the note, pushing herself carefully off the platform bed. George was down in the kitchen, waiting for her to wake up, a warm cup of coffee in hand.

"Miss Grey," George greeted her kindly and a smile creased his face sweetly.

"Morning, George," Eva murmured softly, accepting the cup gratefully. "Um, I…" Eva started, unsure of where she wanted to take that sentence.

"There's a car outside to take you home, Miss Grey. Mr. Northman thought you'd like to return home," George said and Eva's face softened at the gesture of Eric's kindness. She nodded, smiling at George and he motioned her toward the door.

Sure enough, in the driveway sat a sleek black Mercedes, idling and humming in wait for her. It was official, if it hadn't been already, Eric never did anything the cheap way. George opened the black door for her and she slid inside, putting a hand on her arm before he could close the door.

"Thank you, George," she hummed and a genuine smile lighted her still drowsy face. George inclined his head, closing her eyes and laughing gently.

"You're very welcome, Miss Grey. Looking forward to seeing you soon," George said cryptically and closed the door before she could ask him what he meant. Eva huffed as George made his retreat but nothing could shake her out of her drowsy peacefulness.

The car pulled fluidly out of the driveway and started its trip to Eva's house. She swiveled around and watched Eric's hose shrink into the distance as the car got farther and farther away. Finally, it disappeared from view entirely. Eva sighed and turned back around, resting her head back against the leather.

It wasn't long before she was home, pulling into her own driveway. The car stopped and the driver was opening her door before she knew it, offering her his hand.

"Thank you," Eva said and the driver nodded silently, closing the door and climbing back into the car. Soon, the car was already out of her driveway and turning around the corner down the street. She remained outside in front of her house, which was suddenly small and unassuming compared to Eric's estate. In the stillness of the afternoon, Eva's previous happiness chipped away and hung around her in the humidity of the Louisiana day. Once again, she was alone and reminded of all the things being around Eric had helped her forget.

Eva pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead, closing her eyes and taking a deep, calming breath. She would be fine. She would be just fine. She always had been.

Her house was exactly the way she had left it and she realized this with a grumble of disdain. It was a tad messier than she liked, but cleaning her lonely house was the farthest thing down on her priority list at the moment. Instead of doing something productive, anything productive, Eva stripped out of the clothes she had worn all night and pulled on an old sweatshirt and sweatpants. She tied her hair back sloppily, rubbed the old makeup off her face, and lay down on the couch. She curled her legs up and wrapped an arm around them, curling her other arm underneath her head.

Finally, she slept.

Not twenty minutes later, the phone rang. Eva literally growled but reached for the phone.

"Hello?" she answered, her voice bothered and rude.

"Do not take that tone with me, Evalina Grey," Whitney's voice scolded curtly, snapping Eva out of her anger quickly.

"I'm sorry, Whitney," Eva apologized instantly, shifting her position so she was lying on her back.

"You promised you would call me when you got home and it's almost three in the afternoon," Whitney chided. When Eva's mother died, all she had was Whitney and Whitney had stepped in and been her sister, mother, and friend. It had been months and Eva had managed to pull herself together enough to take care of herself, but Whitney's maternal instincts were set in stone.

"I know, but I just got in and I'm tired and didn't really want to talk," Eva said and the silence that followed made her sigh. If she could see Whitney now, her expression would not be pleased. "Ah, I'm sorry, Whit."

"Well, you should be," Whitney said, unruffled and Eva shook her head. "Can I ask a favor of you?" Whitney asked, her voice suddenly sweet. Eva groaned and Whitney resumed talking. "I have a date tonight, will you do my nails? You're so good at it and you have that great velvet green color," Whitney prattled and Eva laughed.

"Of course, Whit."  
"Okay, I'll be over at seven-thirty," Whitney told her and hung up the phone. Eva rolled back toward the TV and switched it to a re-run of the Colbert Report. She had a good four hours until Whitney showed up and she planned on spending those hours splayed out on her couch mindlessly. By the time the first commercial break flashed across the screen, Eva had already slipped into a dreamless sleep, home once again.

--

The laughter from the TV woke her up exactly four hours later. The room around her was bluish from the night and the TV cast an eerie glow through the room. Her body felt heavy with sleep, nowhere near how it felt when she woke up at Eric's house. There was a heavy tightening in her chest, like there was a leaden palm pressing her into the cushions of the couch. She didn't want to move or think or be awake, but she knew Whitney would burst into her home regardless of her desire to sleep for nearly the rest of her life.

Drowsily, Eva pushed herself off of the couch and stood, rubbing her eyes tiredly. Suddenly, she remembered that she actually hadn't eaten in more than twenty-four hours. Her stomach twisted painfully and her feet automatically guided her toward the kitchen. A sandwich never sounded so good.

About halfway through her sandwich making, she heard Whitney let herself in, her heels clicking against the wood floors as she made her way over to Eva.

"Hello, messy girl," Whitney greeted her, setting her purse down and giving Eva a hug. Eva kissed her cheek instead of hugging her, focusing all her hand movements on the sandwich she was making.

"Hello, friend who enters without permission," Eva countered, finishing her sandwich proudly. Whitney waved Eva's comment off absently and plucked the nail polish color from a cabinet shelf, walking herself over to the living room and plopping down on the carpet. Sandwich in hand, Eva followed Whitney to the living room and sat across from her on the carpet. "So, who are you going out with?" Eva asked, taking a bite out of her sandwich.

"Some guy I met at the bar a couple nights ago. But that's beside the point. Tell me what happened with the sexy bar owner!" Whitney pleaded as she spread her palms out on the table, nails clean and prepped. Eva sighed and twisted open the nail polish, starting her story. She told Whitney almost everything but she left out some of the more gruesome, unnecessary parts. Whitney remained silent and stared at Eva with rapt attention. Eva was worried that she may have scarred Whitney with her story but Whitney had been more shocked before, she was sure.

During her second coat of polish and second night of her tale, the doorbell rang. Whitney's eyebrows pulled together in confusion and Eva set the nail polish aside, shrugging. She got to her feet, walking to the front door and pulling it open. On the front porch was Pam, looking stunning as always.

"Pam," Eva said, surprise clear in her voice. "Come in," Eva invited, pulling the door open wider for Pam to enter. Pam stepped inside and ran her blue eyes over Eva's house dully. "What are you doing here?" Eva asked, furrowing her brow and cocking her head to one side. "And how did you know where I live?" Pam rolled her eyes and rested her fist on one of her hips.

"Really, Evalina, I would have thought you were passed questioning anything we do by now," Pam commented, glancing over to where Whitney was still seated on the floor, staring in awe. Eva shook her head and chuckled. "Don't you look cute," Pam joked in the only way she could-dully.

"Well not all of us have designer wardrobes like you, Pam," Eva countered, pushing up the sleeves of her sweatshirt. Pam's red lips twitched into an almost smile, but she disregarded Eva's quip otherwise.

"Eric made me come here and make sure no other vampires had tried to kill you while you were gone," Pam almost complained but the small smile was still on her face. Pam didn't miss the brightening of Eva's face at the mention of Eric. "He would have done it himself but he has meetings all night," Pam added, her eyes wandering over the rest of the house.

"Oh well, that's very…" Eva paused, unsure of what the right adjective would be. Pam's eyebrow raised as she waited for Eva's sentence to finish. "Protective? "Her voice still sounded unsure and Pam's face broke into a smile. "Of him?" Eva finished off her sentence still a little perplexed by it. Pam reached out and grabbed her chin at lightening speed, turning her face this way and that.

"You appear to be in tact, although I can't say the same thing about your clothes." Pam released her and Eva huffed.

"My clothes are fine, thank you," she snapped, raising her eyebrows and Pam replaced her fist on her hip. Pam waved her off idly, returning her gaze back to Eva.

"You should expect another visit soon, I assume. In the mean time, ditch the sweats. If the next time I see you, you're in anything that resembles a poly cotton blend, there will be hell to pay," Pam warned her, running her eyes over Eva's sweatpants before rolling her eyes and disappearing with a gust of cold wind.

Eva stood still in the foyer, eyebrows raised and mouth open in astonishment.

"Eva, was that the woman who checks ID's at Fangtasia?" Whitney called from the living room. Eva cleared her throat and sighed. Yes, that was Pam.

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That's that. Next chapter soon I PROMISE! Let me know what you think...love to hear from you,

Thanks,

-Kate


	9. Chapter 9

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Here ya go guys, I hope you enjoy and as always, thank you thank you thank you for the awesome reviews!!

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Days went by and Eva's sleep cycle remained horribly awry thanks to a single, blue-eyed vampire and now she needed to entertain herself until she got tired. Somehow, at one in the morning, Eva decided that, finally, after months of avoiding the subject, it was time to get rid of her family's belongings. She had moved to Shreveport and demanded they be taken with her against everyone's-including her own-better judgment. She had stubbornly and stupidly shelled out eight hundred dollars to transport the twenty-some unnecessary boxes to her new home in Shreveport.

So, at one in the morning, Eva pulled her hair back, pushed up her sleeves, and opened the first story window so the cool night air blew in and cooled her off. It was time to move on.

There were great pains taken to make sure the boxes remained closed. They weren't taped shut yet because that felt too final. They weren't open because the mere sight of her family's trinkets and possessions made her weepy. The flaps were folded messily over each other, successfully shielding the contents from view.

The boxes were heavy and she had discarded her sweatshirt, lifting and moving the boxes in only a sports bra and the sweatpants that Pam hated. She had taken almost half of the boxes out to the front door in an hour and she was still looking at another half. She thought about calling it quits but she damn well knew that if she stopped now, she would never return to the job. Bending over, she yanked the top box off a pile of two high. When she took a step back, her heel caught on a box behind her and she struggled to keep her balance. It was no surprise that the box was far too heavy for her to efficiently keep her balance and she fell over, the side of her forehead clipping one of the sharp corners of a box.

Dejectedly, she lay on the carpet, groaning at the pain that ebbed and flowed in her head. When she opened her eyes, she saw that the box had fallen open from being dropped to the floor during her fall, its contents spilling out. She sat up quickly and as the dots disappeared from in front of her eyes, she eyed the objects that were splayed out in front of her. With a shaking hand, Eva reached out and picked up her baby brother's blanket.

Before she knew it, tears were spilling from her eyes, down her face, running in streams over her chest, and dripping onto her legs. She could feel her insides ripping apart, her heart stutter painfully in her heaving chest. This pain was much more acute and defined than being nearly killed by a ravenous vampire.

"Evalina," a voice called her name tightly, borderline angry. Eva's head snapped up toward the open window, her vision blurry from her tears but the sight in front of her was unmistakable. "Invite me in, Evalina," Eric ordered, his voice still icy.

"Come in," she stuttered, trying to control her gasping breaths, as Eric appeared right in front of her, kneeling down to her level. His big, stony hands gripped either side of her face firmly but gently and held her still as he inspected the bleeding gash on her forehead.

"What happened? Who did this to you?" Eric demanded roughly. His voice suddenly took on a dangerous, angry note that he had previously been trying to mute. Eva had no doubt that if someone had actually attacked her, Eric wouldn't think twice about hunting them down and killing them. But the sad truth was that she had been clumsy and slightly fatigued and tripped over a box.

"No," Eva whispered, taking a deep breath and grasping Eric's arms as he held her face firmly. She tried to shake her head but Eric was keeping her very still. "No one did this to me." Eric's face suddenly became confused as he lifted a brow.

"Are you telling me that you did this to yourself?" His voice was not all that surprised but his tone had finally lost that dangerous, vicious edge. Eva sniffled and had the grace to look guilty.

"I didn't intentionally do this to myself, no, I just tripped." Eva shrugged a bare shoulder and Eric shook his head, closing his lake blue eyes.

"I see that now," Eric purred, his eyes opening and fixing on the bleeding gash on her forehead. Quickly, he bent her head down so her forehead was to his lips and he gently ran the icy tip of his tongue along the length of the gash. A small gasp escaped her mouth but she allowed him to lick her forehead, temple and cheek clean on her blood. When he pulled his face back, he licked his pink lips hungrily. "Would you like me to heal that for you?" Eva's eyes widened but she nodded her head. The pain from the headache was making her woozy.

Eric bit casually into his wrist and held it up for her before the blood could drip onto the carpet. She touched her lips to his wrist, smelling the tinny scent of the blood before she actually tasted it. A few draws from his wrist later, he was pulling it away, chuckling throatily. She licked her lips clean of the blood and cleared her throat.

"That's all you need," Eric said, running a thumb over the clear patch of skin that used to be blemished by a gash. Eva hummed, nodding and smiling up at him as the pain in her head completely disappeared.

"That's twice you've healed my wounds now," Eva said as Eric dropped his hands away from her face. Eric straightened up and fastened a button on his suit coat, pushing his blonde hair back.

"That's twice you've managed to damage yourself. God forbid you trip and fall at noon," he only half joked. Eva wrinkled her nose at him. He was looking around the dull room, taking in the scene. "Go make yourself presentable, you'll come to the bar with me tonight," Eric told her, still running his eyes over the room.

"Eric, I have things to do here," Eva argued half-heartedly, sweeping her arm over the room and cringing at the thought of being left alone now.

"Yes, well, this isn't a job for you," Eric said, bringing his head slowly toward Eva. "You're too invested in this to be able to perform the task at hand. By the time you return, these boxes will be properly taken care of." Eric's voice was cool and matter-of-factly as he straightened his coat. Eva just stared up at him like he was speaking Hebrew. "Now go upstairs, Evalina, and change those clothes. I do remember Pam promising there would be hell to pay if she saw you dressed in sweats again." Eva rolled her eyes at him and allowed him to pick her up under her arms and point her in the direction of the door. "You have fifteen minutes starting now." With that, she was heading upstairs before she really knew what she was doing.

Once again, Eva found herself in her closet; scanning her clothing options and convincing herself that she had absolutely nothing to wear to a vampire bar. Her arms were crossed and there was something of a scowl on her face. It was nearly two in the morning and she was letting Eric drag her to a vampire bar, which also happened to be the last place on earth she wanted to be.

In a moment of curiosity, she pricked her ears up and listened carefully. The man was like the wind; he made absolutely no noise at all. She couldn't hear anything, not even the sounds of his wingtip shoes on the hardwood or the subtle rustle of fabric from his suit. Either he was standing perfectly still or he had left the house completely. She simply saw no other reason why he made no noise. She let her arms drop to her sides and quietly walked out from her walk-in closet. Her feet padded quickly across the carpet as she made her way to the bedroom door, closed to keep the vampires out-ha.

"Going somewhere, my little teacup human?" Eric purred, his voice laced with a condescending edge.

"You're still here." Was it him, or did he really detect relief and something along the lines of happiness flood through her? Strangely enough, her feeling warmed him.

"You're still half-dressed," he noticed, letting his eyes run up and down her exposed torso and arms before they reached her eyes.

"I have nothing to wear," Eva mumbled wearily and Eric's brows rose in feigned surprise.

"Somehow, I very much doubt that," Eric purred, pushing her ebony waves of hair back behind her shoulders so her neck was exposed to him. The warm scent of her skin and the red well flowing beneath the thin layer sang to him and it took nearly every ounce of self-control he possessed to ignore the melody. That certainly didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the tune. To his immense surprise and pleasure she allowed his gesture and didn't even balk at the touch.

"Well, start doubting," Eva grumbled and rolled her dusty, pewter eyes as a cool breeze blew past her. When she looked back up, Eric was gone. She felt a moment of panic when she couldn't find him anywhere in the hallway. As she turned back around toward the room, she suppressed the urge to scream again. "You're going to stop my heart if you scare me like that again," Eva scolded, her hand covering her rapidly beating heart. Eric disregarded her complaint and handed over a hanger heavy with a little black dress and a pair of bright red pumps.

"I think this will do just fine," he murmured, holding the dress up until she swiped it away. He pushed back his blonde hair and glanced at a wall clock. He situated himself on her bed, reclining casually into her pillows like it was his own bed. As she remained unmoving in front of him, he unbuttoned his suit coat and smiled mischievously at her. "You'd better hop to, sweetness," Eric hummed at her and she furrowed her brow when she realized he wasn't going anywhere. Well, fine.

Since his legs were sprawled out on her bed, long and lean, and crossed at the ankle, she laid her dress over them while she shimmied out of her sweatpants. His eyes were locked on her and she tried her very best to ignore the immense weight of those glacial blue orbs, just like the first time she saw him. So, she spoke to break the unbearable sexual tension.

"So, why all black again? Is there some kind of rule against colors at your bar?" Eva half joked, obviously struggling with the zipper behind her. Eric moved slowly this time as he stood and pushed away from the bed. He disappeared behind her, swatting her hands gently away as he took up with the zipper. She dropped her hands willingly. His hands moved gracefully, like a maestro's, as he brushed back her hair over her shoulders. His long, cool fingers lingered on her neck a moment too long but she closed her eyes at the wonderfully cold touch against her neck. He pulled the zipper up slowly and turned her around to face him.

"You look good enough to eat," Eric said, smiling slightly at his own joke. Of course he would love to absolutely devour her. "Time to go, my little teacup human," he purred, his hands falling from her shoulders. She sighed and stepped into her shoes, shaking her head and smiling in defeat. Eric always got what Eric wanted, and little by little, he was winning her over.

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That's that! Hope you guys liked it! Let me know what you think.

-Kate


	10. Chapter 10

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Hey guys! I'm really sorry it took me so long to update... you know how the holidays are! anyway, I really hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!! Review!

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The night was sticky hot outside and the air was still and as Eva and Eric walked out of the house, Eva stopped short. "Where's the car?" Eva asked, her eyebrows knitting together as she looked up at him. Eric's smile was devilish as he looked down at her and her mouth dropped open. "Really?" she squeaked, shocked. "Really?" It was all she could say. Eric threw his golden head back and laughed a real, true laugh. It was the first time she had actually heard him laugh and the sound was like music and she loved to be the reason behind its melody. When he finished laughing, Eva's face was smiling at his humor and he wrapped his arms around her.

"Close your eyes, Evalina," Eric whispered and after a moment of stillness, she complied, shielding her pewter orbs from view. After a couple of minutes, Eva found herself getting antsy and she was a touch nervous that she couldn't see. Just when she was about to open her eyes on her own free will, Eric spoke.

"Open," he told her gently and she willingly opened her eyes. A shocked scream escaped her lips and she grabbed Eric's collar in her hands so tightly her knuckles were turning white.

"Eric, we're flying!" Eva nearly yelled, her cheek pressed against his chest. She felt a gentle vibration ripple through him as he chuckled at her surprise.

"Very observant," Eric joked, wrapping her closer to him as she wriggled herself impossibly tighter to him. "Don't close your eyes. We'll be there soon and it really is spectacular from up here," Eric said calmly and Eva took a deep breath, opening her eyes. Eric was right; the view was breathtaking. All the lights from below shone like bulbs from a Christmas tree stand in yellows, whites, and oranges. The breeze blew through her hair softly and actually cooled her on the hot Louisiana night while they flew through the air, suspended by nothing. She had never been so terrified and captivated at the same time in her whole life. For some reason, she felt safe here in Eric's arms, snuggled securely against his marble chest. She wondered if Eric felt a little like God up here, floating above humanity, completely untouchable. He sure looked like one.

She raised her head up to look at him and found him staring intently down at her face. He traced her expression carefully, watched the way a silent reverence shrouded her beautiful features. And when she looked up at him, he saw in her something he had never seen in his long, long life. She, a human, a young, beautiful, imperfect human, was falling in love with him.

"This is amazing," she told him, her eyes sparkling with excitement, her cheeks rosy and alive. "I never knew vampires could fly," she murmured softly and Eric smiled.

"Not all vampires can. I'm very old. I have my tricks," Eric said, waiting for the smile to grow on her face. She didn't disappoint.

Soon, too soon, their feet were firmly planted back on the pavement. Instead of entering through the back employees entrance, they landed safely at the front door. Reluctantly, Eva untangled herself from Eric's arms and stepped back, adjusting her black dress. Eric watched her and smirked as she reached for her wind-blown curls. Eric's hand caught her wrist before she could comb her fingers through her black mane and she furrowed her brow at him.

"Leave it. It will give them something to talk about," Eric almost laughed and pulled her along, toward the front door.

Pam was standing at her normal spot near the threshold, her fist on her hip and her face not in the least bit amused-until she caught sight of Eva and Eric.

"Well, don't you look…had," Pam commented off-handedly, a playful smile ghosting her perfectly red lips. Eric winked at her and reached lower down Eva's arm for her hand, pushing back his ruffled hair. Eva huffed next to him. She allowed him to lead her into the bar and stiffened a bit as all eyes fell on them in a hushed sort of awe. She balked at the attention but Eric ignored it, walking her straight up to the bar and sitting her down. The music blared loudly and after a couple of seconds, conversations resumed around them. He didn't seem to notice any of this. With a quick flick of his wrist, he summoned the bartender.

"Keep an eye on her. I don't know how she does it, but she always seems to be where trouble lurks." Eric eyed her pointedly and she rolled her eyes at him dramatically. "Stay put. I won't be long," he told her, still looking cautiously at her out of the corner of his eye, almost like he was worried about her well-being. She sighed, crossing her legs and leaning in toward him.

"I will do what I want," she told him proudly. Eric's lips twitched in an almost smile. He picked up a stray lock of her hair and twirled it around his finger.

"I won't be far. Don't let her out of your sight," Eric said to the bartender without looking at her. Before she could argue, he was gone and the curl he had been idly twirling had fallen back to her shoulder. She heard the bartender's amused laughter behind her ad she swiveled around on her stool to glare hotly at him.

"He loves to ruffle your feathers," the bartender laughed, sliding her a crystal glass of brandy. She grabbed it and downed its contents in a few gulps.

"This place is going to turn me into a raging alcoholic," she muttered, sighing as the bartender filled up her drink again. This time, she milked the drink.

"Don't go anywhere. I'll be right down the bar," the bartender warned her sternly, waiting until she finally nodded her head. "That's a good little human," he said and blurred across the bar, away from her. She lifted the glass to her lips and grumbled into it before sipping heartily.

She saw them coming from across the dance floor and she eyed them skeptically. A group of young girls, younger than she, and dressed to impress, came strutting pointedly over to the bar, battle faces on. Eva leaned back against the bar in anticipation of their arrival and sipped her drink casually. Her night just improved beyond her wildest expectations.

The group of four or five seriously pissed off girls came to a halt in front of her and she smiled, finally figuring out why they would possibly harbor ill will toward her: one man, two syllables, and one pain in the ass vampire.

"Can I help you, ladies?" Eva asked, her voice sickly sweet.

"So, you're Eric's new plaything now?" the head bitch said, crossing her arms standoffishly. Eva decided it was both best and more entertaining to refrain from answering and instead took another sip of her drink. "I can't see why he would choose you," she said, disgusted by the idea. Eva's lips twitched in their urge to break her restraint and smile.

"And obviously you're superior to me," Eva almost laughed, angling her head to one side condescendingly.

"Don't make me laugh. Of course I am. Besides, why would he want a trashy slut like you when he could have me?" Eva was literally taken aback by the woman's obvious adoration and malice. She knew the man was sought after and put up on a pedestal, but seriously? And unladylike grunt of laughter escaped her lips.

"Judging by those oh-so discrete little holes in your neck, I don't know who hasn't had you." The girl's face grew bright red in embarrassment and she picked up her drink and threw its contents in Eva's face. Before Eva could react, the woman had actually slapped her across the face-hard. "You bitch!" Eva yelled and lunged her body toward the woman but was confused to discover that she wasn't moving.

Eric was grasping her arm tightly in his hand, holding her to him so she couldn't throw herself at the girl. Besides, the girl wasn't going anywhere. Pam had her by the throat, her eyes sparkling subtly with excitement but her pretty face uninterested.

The woman's martini was soaked into the front of Eva's hair and seeping through the strands slowly and torturously. Her face was wet from the alcohol and her bottom lip was bleeding from the blow she received. Every time she was at the bar, someone wanted to beat the shit out of her.

What are you doing, Evalina?" Eric sighed, turning her around to see the damage to her face. When he saw the trickle of blood from her bottom lip, Eva heard a feral, dangerous growl escape his throat and she shrunk back. He looked up to the detained girl and her now terrified friends. Eric situated Eva in front of him, wrapping an arm securely over her chest and gripping her opposite arm with his hand.

"What do you have to say for yourself, human?" Pam hissed, raising a blonde brow.

"Eric, I can give you more than she ever could," the girl growled angrily and Eric stepped closer, restraining Eva easily but noticing her struggles against him.

"Let me make one thing perfectly clear to you. You were nothing but a walking bag of blood. Suffer no delusions, I keep no pets," Eric told her calmly, pushing his golden hair back with his free hand. "Pam," Eric said and Pam nodded, yanking the young girl toward the door.

"I suggest you little girls follow your friend out willingly or suffer the same fate," Pam called to the cowering brood of women coldly as she walked.

Eva struggled out of Eric's grip-only because he let her-and began to walk away, toward the back door to the employee area. Eric followed.

"Where do you think you're going, sweetness? This is my bar," Eric reminded her lightly as she stormed through his office door. Once he walked in casually behind her, she rounded on him.

"Is that all I am to you, Eric?" Eva asked suddenly and Eric stood still, ready for her storm of emotions. He had felt them building and knew it was only a matter of time before they were unleashed and he thought it best to keep quiet for the time being. "A walking bag of blood?" she spat, pushing her wet, black hair out of her eyes. He watched her eyes scan his quietly, suddenly full of hurt and confusion. "Because if that's all I am, then I don't need you. I don't want you!" She was surprised at the effect those words had on her, and so was he because her devastation mirrored his own. "I have lost everything, so what's just one more loss?" she was nearly hysterical now. Vampire or human, he never did know what to do with a crying woman. "But why even get close to me then? To watch the human's hurt live in person when the time came?"

She visibly sagged as she stood, her anger draining away only to be replaced by hurt and sorrow.

"Sit down, Eva," Eric told her. She scoffed meanly at him and he began to feel his own frustration rise. "Fine, then stand. But you will listen to me either way." Eric's voice was serious now and he took several steps closer to her. She stood her ground, showing him she wasn't afraid at him, and raised her chin to look at him. Her brows were knitted tightly together and her lips were pursed into an angry line but her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkled with her impending rage. She was beautiful and Eric almost lost what he was about to say.

"I'm very old, Evalina, over a thousand years old. Not much gets past me, no one betters me." He paused then, unsure of how he would continue. "If you think that I would show that needy little thing half the kindness and hospitality I showed you then you're not as sharp as I thought."

"What's that supposed to even mean, Eric?" she moaned, wiping the still trickling blood from her lip. He blurred over to her and took her chin in his grip, steadying her eyes on him.

"It means that there is quite a difference between you and some over-eager fangbanger." Eva's eyes shot downward in an embarrassed manner. When she looked back up at him, he was staring hungrily at the blood on her lips. In a moment of spontaneity, Eva reached her hands up and cupped Eric's face, pulling it down to hers. Their lips closed on each other's passionately and Eric reacted to her touch instantly, pulling her against him until her small body was molded against his. He was gently sucking on the open cut on her lip and the rhythmic pulling of the skin was enough to make her weep with pleasure.

Her lips parted and a low moan of bliss escaped into his mouth. She felt him hum appreciatively against her and struggled to close the sliver of space between them. His lips on hers were mesmerizing and they moved against hers in the most natural way thinkable. His teeth nipped and tugged gently at her bottom lip, still bleeding thanks to his constant sucking.

Her fingers tangled themselves in his hair and she ran her tongue over his razor sharp fangs. She never thought about Eric's fangs until now and she found herself suddenly curious. She pulled away from him and looked at those perfectly white fangs. They looked so oddly natural in his mouth, like they were always meant to be there, like he was born a vampire. Her eyes flitted up to his and she saw him staring down at her with hungry eyes. Her hands were still braided in his hair and she could feel the coolness of his body through her little black dress and all over her body. It was like he was everywhere on her, touching every single crease and line.

"Pam will close the bar tonight," Eric told her suddenly, pushing his hair back and releasing her waist only to grab hold of her hand to lead her out the door.

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Hope you liked it, let me know. I love the feedback.

-Kate


	11. Chapter 11

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Hey guys...man am I sorry that this took me so long to update. I just don't know what happened! Time got away from me! Isn't that always the case though?

Anyway, listen, there's some rated PG-13 stuff goin on in this chapter, nothing too bad but just warnin ya. As always, I hope you all enjoy and review please!!

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He was so stunningly beautiful that she literally had to stop what she was doing to stare at his nakedness. She had never seen such a lean, muscled frame before and she was absorbed by his chiseled perfection. He smiled devilishly at her from across the room where he stood and she remained frozen in place on the bed. In a white blur, he was next to her, lying on his side and propped up on an elbow. Eva lay down and pressed a hand to his cheek, watching him watch her. Tonight, she didn't want to think. She had spent far too long thinking and mulling until her head ached. Tonight she just wanted to feel.

Eric, sensing her need and arousal, rolled her over so he rested on top of her, bracing his weight on his forearms.

"Are you giving yourself to me, Miss Grey?" Eric teased, bowing his head down to her collarbone and running his lips across it very gently.

"That depends," she murmured, a little breathlessly. Eric's sculpted face rose and met hers, a brow rising in silent question. "Are you doing the same?" Eva asked, one of her black eyebrows lifting to match his golden one. The smile that broke on Eric's usually stoic face was blindingly beautiful, she couldn't stand it any longer. She had to have him now, right now. Just then, his lips closed down on hers and once again moved in a spine trembling way. His weight on her was the only thing keeping her from floating away in sheer ecstasy and she swayed her hips against his. His body instantly reacted to her motion and she smiled into their kiss. His hands travelled up and down her body, exploring every angle thoroughly, making her skin tingle and her hair stand on end.

His mouth strayed from hers, down her cheeks, over her chin, onto her neck and paused, planting neat little kisses on the soft skin there. She knew his fangs were out, she could feel them through his lips and suddenly, she felt excitement.

"Do it, Eric," she said, her voice sultry and husky. Eric licked the skin there and raised his head up to look at her.

"You are mine now, my little teacup human," he told her, his eyes intense and a small, smug smirk on his bowed lips. He lowered his head back to her neck and licked once more. "All mine," he said into her skin, his voice vibrating against her neck. Then, he bit down, his fangs piercing the surface of her skin with a small pop as it broke.

The pulling she felt on her neck was unbelievable, it was immeasurably pleasurable and she cried out with delight and thrill. She gripped the back on his neck as he continued to pull mouthfuls of blood from her neck. As she rolled her head back against the pillow, Eric grabbed her wrist with one hand and slid into her quickly, provoking a small sound of satisfaction from Eva. Another moan filled the dark room and she was lost in him, in his world, in his scent, in his body. She had never experienced anything like what she was feeling now. With every pull on her neck, there was an accompanying thrust and she didn't know which to appreciate more.

Finally, just as she was literally on the verge, Eric pulled his teeth out of her neck and brought his still bloody mouth to hers. She didn't care. She needed him, wanted him, and begged fro the contact. His mouth tasted tinny from her blood and his fangs punctured her bottom lip.

Her fingernails raked down his alabaster back and she arched up against him, saying his name as she reached her peak. He nuzzled his face into her neck as they both finished and she panted underneath him. He, on the other hand, didn't breathe at all.

Just as he did the cut on her forehead, he lucked up the blood on her neck and around her mouth, stopping only to kiss her back when she peppered his busy mouth with kisses. Finally, he stopped and laughed a gravelly chuckle against her puckered lips. He felt her mouth break into a smile against his lips.

He pulled away to look at her, and propped himself up on his elbow. Her cheeks were flushed and pink and her black mane of hair was splayed across his white pillowcases like a dark halo. The smile on her face was enough to make him chuckle with a sudden realization: he knew what he wanted now. He wanted her and he wanted her because in the thousand years he had been roaming the earth, he had been doing just that; roaming. There was no reason to stay comfortably in one place for long, put down roots that couldn't be removed, to care about anyone but himself. Every minute with Evalina seemed quite like planting another root that harnessed him to Shreveport, to her. Somehow, he didn't mind. It was easy to know that here was home.

When Eric fell asleep, Eva rose and walked over to the windows to draw the curtains. The sun would be coming up and she wanted to make sure the room wouldn't see its rays. Climbing back into bed, she wrapped an arm around him, drawing herself closer to his sleeping form. He slept like the dead, that was for sure. There was no sign of life to him. He didn't breathe, he didn't move, his eyelids didn't flutter, his arms didn't twitch, he stayed perfectly, deathly still. When she laid her head against his chest, there was no thud of a steadily beating heart to be heard. No sound came from his pale chest.

Yet, the knowledge of this did not upset her.

It endeared her.

She would be his beating heart. Hers would thud once, then echo for him. She would breathe for him. She would be the air in his lungs, the oxygen running through his dried out veins. She could be those things because she was past the point of no return now. She was his, and his she was.

Eva slept through the day with Eric, thus confusing her inner clock even more than before. Sleep during the day, run with the vampires during the night. It was all very new and exciting for her. It was a life she could adopt. It was a life that she wouldn't write off for herself.

A knock sounded at the door and Eva slid out of bed and donned Eric's shirt from the previous night before opening his bedroom door. George stood on the other side with a tray of breakfast food for her and smiled.

"Thought you might like a bit to eat," he said and handed her the tray carefully.

"Thank you, George." Eva took the tray and nodded graciously at him.

"Of course, Miss Gray, my pleasure," he told her kindly and bowed his head before walking away. Eva shut the door with her foot as she turned around. She set the tray of food down on Eric's desk and checked the bedside clock. It was nearly seven in the evening and George had made her breakfast. What a wonderful man.

From the bed, Eric watched Eva sit down and sip idly at her coffee as she looked out the now open window. She was quiet; he could tell she was trying not to wake him.

"You need to eat, sweetness. Put back some of what I took," he told her from the bed. Eva's head turned around to face him and he smiled over at her. She laughed gently and nodded her head.

"I know, I know," she assured him.

"Well, I don't see you eating," he challenged and got up out of bed only to disappear in a rush of cool air to dress and appear at her side. She looked up at him and saw him looked distastefully down at the food on the plate. His nose was wrinkled and his lips were pursed. Apparently human food no longer appealed to him. The assortment of breakfast food on the plate looked and smelled delicious to her though, and she plucked a piece of bacon off the plate and bit off a mouthful. "Good," he said, even though he looked perfectly repulsed.

"What's the matter?" You don't like human food anymore?" Eva asked, seriously curious as she chewed her bacon. Eric petted her head lovingly and chuckled.

"It's been a long time since I've had anything like…that. Yes, I suppose you could say that I don't like human food anymore," he said and twirled a piece of her hair around his finger. "But I do wish you'd eat more than a few bites. As I recall," Eric started, walking across the room toward the light, "You lost quite a bit of blood last night." Eva laughed a simple, happy laugh and finished off the piece of bacon. The light flickered on and the room was cast in a subtle glow.

She watched him walk back towards her and smiled, wondering what the night would bring.

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Merry Christmas, happy holidays, hope you enjoyed, let me know! Once again, sorry this took me so damn long to update! Reviews welcomed!

-Kate


	12. Chapter 12

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Here ya go, hope you all enjoy...let me know cos I love me some reviews!

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Her nights were her mornings; her mornings were her nights. She slept by the sun and lived by the moon. All that was missing was a set of pointy teeth, and she had always thought her canines were a little on the sharp side anyway. She couldn't remember the last time she had been away from Eric for more than two days. He seemed to always be there and for once in her life, she wanted someone there. She wanted to be around him, felt whole and complete around him in a way that she thought she would never feel again after the death of her family. He healed her from the inside out, she didn't know how, she didn't know when, but she was so glad.

Usually she spent the night at Eric's house, but last night he was busy with work and she had promised her friends a night out. Of course she had spent the night out and had a great time with her friends. They, thank god, were not at all stunned by her relationship with a vampire and for that she was grateful. They had accepted the fact, thrilled to it even, taking so much pressure off of Eva.

She had finally gotten herself to fall asleep in her own bed around 6:00 in the morning when the sun started to peak through her window. She smiled and thought that wherever Eric was, he too was just falling asleep. It wasn't long though before she woke up, rested but restless. It was noon and hours before she could take a ride over to the club where she promised she would meet Eric that evening, so she pushed herself out of bed and showered, figuring she'd pay a visit to her favorite book store for a good afternoon read.

It was hot outside, blisteringly, can't get comfortable hot and she stepped up her pace, wanting to get into the air-conditioned bookstore as quickly as possible.

"Excuse me, miss?" Eva heard someone say to her left, their shadow appearing in her peripheral vision. Despite the heat of midday, a chill shivered up her spine leaving her legs feeling jittery and her heartbeat accelerated. Her entire body tensed as she turned slightly sideways and glanced at the man who approached her. His eyes looked red-rimmed and unfocused in the worst way and she kept her weight on the balls of her feet, fearing the worst.

"Can I help you?" she asked, her neck muscles so tight she thought her head was going to pop off.

"Did you drop this?" the man asked, holding up a necklace and fast approaching. Eva shook her head and began to take another step away, but the man called to her again. "Are you sure?" Here, take a better look," the man said and reached out to her. In that instant, the millisecond that his hand bolted toward her, she knew that this man wasn't simply inquiring about a dropped necklace. Before she could pull away, the man's hand had closed tightly and painfully around her upper arm, yanking her so quickly that she didn't have time to scream. By the time she realized that stopping and allowing this stranger to ask her a question, it was too late and she found herself being thrown into the back of a van.

There, she screamed and cried and pounded her fists on the closed and locked doors, but no one heard or came back for her. Then, as if she couldn't have predicted it herself, the van lurched forward and screeched out of the little bookstore parking lot. Tears ran down her cheeks and her voice echoed off the cold metal frame of the van, but all she could think of was Eric as a second man reached back and hit her in the face so hard with the butt of his gun that she passed out cold.

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"If you check your watch one more time I'm going to tear your arm off," Pam said, her own voice a little too high pitched for the threat to really mean anything. Eva was an hour late, very unlike her. Eric would know, he knew all of her habits by now, all of her strange, unusual and endearing quirks. Being late was certainly not in her repertoire. Fifteen minutes had passed and Eric thought nothing of it. Thirty minutes came and went and he found himself pacing, a habit that he thought he had kicked when he became an immortal-apparently not. Forty-five minutes then passed and he had taken to sitting stone still on a lounge chair near the front door where Pam was, checking his watch like it was going to run off on him. He felt like a complete idiot, but something felt off. Something about her absence felt wrong and though his heart was lifeless, the feeling was like stones in his heart.

"Pam, something isn't right," Eric muttered, standing and fixing his collar mindlessly. Pam glanced over her shoulder at Eric and then over at the wall clock. She had to admit, it was very strange that Eva hadn't yet showed up. She was usually so timely. "I'm going to find her. You'll take care of things here for tonight," Eric said and Pam nodded, her blonde curls passing over her shoulders, but she didn't complain like she normally would have. She wasn't lying the night she told Eva that she liked her. It would be a pity to lose such an interesting human just when she had added her to her small collection.

Eric passed through the front door, leaving his car behind, deciding that he would be better and more efficient on foot. His first stop was obviously her house, but when he arrived, there were no lights on and her car was not in her garage. He stood motionless on her porch for a long moment, thinking, searching his memory for the places she could possibly be.

He found himself wandering towards her friend's places, peering inside and finding no Eva. He shot past the grocery store she shopped at and the grocery store George shopped at for her, but she was nowhere in sight. He looked everywhere it seemed, but Eva appeared to have simply disappeared into the thin, Louisiana air.

He walked down the street, hands in pockets, head down, mind swirling. The feeling of stones in his heart had not subsided and to think about Eva being gone from his otherwise so empty life caused him actual pain-pain he hadn't felt in hundreds of years. To think that she wouldn't be sleeping so soundly next to him when he woke, her breathing steady, her heartbeat strong, made his head hurt. To think that her lovely smell wouldn't fill his rooms anymore twisted his stomach. It both surprised him and concerned him that all he wanted to come home to in the wee hours of the morning was Eva curled up on an old leather chair in his library reading a book that he thought had been long gone in the confusion of his many moves.

That thought gave him pause. Eva loved books. She loved a certain bookstore and he knew exactly where that was. Like a bullet from a gun, Eric was running down the street, his finely tailored suit wrinkling and straining against his running muscles. In mere moments, he had arrived at the bookstore parking lot, scanning the lots for her little blue Civic. There it was, parked neatly toward the middle of the lot, the red security light flashing on the dash. He blurred up to it and peered into the windows. An extra pair of shoes were thrown carelessly in the backseat and CD's littered the floor. Eric's lips tugged at that. She was never a neat one.

He glanced around, for visual's sake, he would have smelled her if she was near, but he didn't. She was gone and only a faint aroma of her lingered on her car. Eric rested his eyes on the little, unassuming bookstore and headed over, knowing for a sure fact that they would have security cameras monitoring the parking lot. With a flick of his wrist and a highly trained skill, he broke right into the front of the store, careful not to trip the alarm. Like a white streak against the darkness inside the bookstore, Eric passed to the back where he found the manager's office and behind that simply locked door, he found the security tapes.

He flicked on the TV and pressed his finger down on the rewind button, watching with able eyes as people and shadows blew past. Cars came and went, the sun moved from one side of the sky to the other, and then, Eva's little, petite body showed up on tape. Eric released the rewind button and allowed the scene to play out before him from the time her blue Civic pulled into the parking lot. He watched her step out of her car, shading her eyes from the hot sun and wincing at the heat as she closed her door, locking it diligently as she walked away. She had walked about two-dozen feet when she suddenly stopped, her head whipping over to the side. Eric could tell by her stance that she didn't like the situation she found herself in, and when the man appeared on camera, Eric felt such horrible rage that he had to steady himself on the edge of the table.

A necklace dangled from the mystery man's fingers and Eva shook her head, trying to walk away, but stopping again when the man quickly closed in on her. Eric could tell that by the time she figured out it was time to move, the man had already gotten too close and it was a fight she couldn't win. He grabbed her and she struggled with all her might, but she was so little and he was too strong for her. As the van pulled away, Eric read the license plates and memorized it. By the time he exited the bookstore, his pulsating anger had blossomed into a fully developed homicidal rage. He was out for blood now, and his insatiable thirst for revenge would be slaked.

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Let me know what you thought, sorry it was so long coming! Hopefully I'll get the next one up soon so I don't leave you guys wondering for too, too long-haha.

-Kate


	13. Chapter 13

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Whoa! it's bee so long, but this chapter was killing me to write. When i finally spat it out, I was really happy, and I hope that you guys enjoy it...Loved your comments from last time and obviously I will love any comments you have this time. Enjoy!!

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"Everyone out," Eric yelled as he walked into the bar, his bar. The music cut off and all heads, vampire and human, turned to stare at him. The only sound in the room was the accelerated breathing of his human customers. No one was moving. Sensing Eric's impending rage, Pam sidestepped in front of him, hand on hip.

"I think you all heard him. You have forty-five seconds." In that instant, there was a flurry of motion as both species streamed quickly through the door, extremely careful not to brush against Eric, as he stood motionless near the exit. The last of the patrons filtered out and Pam locked the door behind them, turning toward Eric. "What the hell is going on," she asked, voice dull but her big, usually hard blue eyes swimming with questions.

"She's been taken," Eric announced as he led the way back to his office. Pam and the bartender followed him closely as he rounded his desk and tore off a piece of paper from a flyer for the bar. "This is the license plate number of the van she was forced into," Eric said, scribbling it on a piece of paper and thrusting it toward the bartender, not needing to address the fact that he should look into it immediately because as soon as the paper passed hands, the bartender was off. Pam eyed Eric silently, letting him struggle for a moment by himself without saying anything. She had never seen her maker like this before and it struck something inside of her. Not just because they had a connection that was unlike any human connection of friends. She felt his hurt deep in her bones, burning every part of every nerve. She almost wished she were physically apart from him just so the burning wasn't so acute. Being around Eric was always a point of neutrality; she never had to worry about insane, off-putting emotion emitting from him because he was always a flat line literally and emotionally. Now, not only did the deeply rooted hurt and pain and anger and fear move her, the shock struck her as well.

Eric was leaning over his desk, knuckles nearly making imprints on the surface from the force her was exerting. Finally, she found her voice but kept her distance.

"Eric, it's almost half past four in the morning. The sun's coming up in a little under two hours and we don't have the time to figure anything more out tonight. It will be a damn miracle if he makes it back with any information on the license plates at all. It will have to wait until tomorrow night." Pam's words stung in the absolute worst way possible, but Eric couldn't deny the fact that she was right. There was just one thing on his mind: she may not make it to tomorrow night.

Damn what he was, damn it to hell.

In the next two hours, until the sun rose, Eric and Pam waited for the bartender to come back with the necessary information to take the next step. He wouldn't return home to sleep tonight, he would sleep in the back room where he kept a bed for too-late nights, and in the moment the sun sank below the horizon, he would be off and running. His head swirled and in the years he had spent as an immortal, he had never felt true, sickening fear. He had taken that particular, obtrusive emotion and buried it under rocks and dirt and concrete and gravel until it was dead and lifeless, until he absolutely couldn't feel it pricking at the back of his mind of sitting heavily in the pit of his stomach. He had never counted on fear coming back up to the surface and rearing its ugly head. Fear was not an emotion felt by someone who couldn't die. Now, that emotion, that all consuming fear exploded from its confines and trickled into every crevice of his mind, staining it an ugly color.

At a quarter to six, the bartender appeared in the doorway, holding up a new piece of paper with a name written in crisp, clear writing: Mark Pope. Eric took little solace-but solace enough-in the fact that he now had a name, and a direction to aim his hateful vengeance.

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This was a completely new sensation of pain. She had never woken up to her face hurting before in her life. Not just a headache, though that was going on as well, but a dull ache and a pulsating on her left temple close to her cheek. She reached up, but was even more surprised to find her hands bound tightly, uncomfortably so, now that she realized it, to the arms of the chair she was propped in. Her eyes snapped open and she lost her breath when she finally became conscious of the fact that she wasn't safely sleeping tucked under Eric's arm. She looked around, horrified at her surroundings. The place she was in was dark and dank and smelled like iron and chlorine. It was a stark room, no real furniture except a few non-strategically placed metal chairs and a lamp that barely cast any light around the room at all.

She felt groggy, like the world was swimming around her and she was weighted down to the bottom of a deep, deep ocean. So, when someone appeared seemingly out of nowhere, in front of her, it took her several seconds for the image to focus. It was a woman, pale and raven-haired and gorgeous, but familiar in a way she couldn't exactly put her finger on at the moment. In fact, she couldn't put her finger on anything at the moment. Her own name was running out of reach in her mind presently.

"Ah, so she wakes," the frightful looking woman said and patted Eva's head in a falsely gentle manner that had malice behind the touch. Eva's vision still blurred slightly but the way the woman spoke and the coldness of her touch told Eva exactly what was so strange about this woman. She wasn't human. She was a vampire. Now, the question was, what did a female vampire want with her? "Well, don't be so rude after I've let you into my house!" the woman said and laughed a humorless laugh. Had Eva been able to formulate coherent sentences, she would have fired off a few colorful words for her. Obviously the woman knew her state of mind was impaired because she laughed at Eva's lack of answer. "While I have your undivided attention, allow me to introduce myself," said the woman as she pulled up a chair and sat directly across from her. Eva's chest felt heavy, like there was a hundred pound weight resting on it and her head rolled limply on her neck. The woman reached out fast as lightening and grabbed her chin in a painful, harsh grasp, forcing Eva to look at her while she spoke.

"Let me…" Eva started but was unable to continue because of fatigue and haziness. The woman laughed and tightened her grip like a viper strangling its prey. All Eva wanted was to sleep, sleep, sleep, but she forced her eyes open as the woman spoke.

"I'm Heidi. You don't know me, but you may remember my mate," she sneered, her basilisk eyes flashing and full of mocking hatred. Eva's drowsy eyes ached as she struggled to look at this woman who had gone from sickly sweet to terrifying in less than an instant. Eva searched her drug-induced brain for a memory of someone she may have met that would foretell a moment like this, but it was like there was a wall in her mind that she couldn't get past. It was almost as if someone had built up a brick wall to keep her from all her coherent thoughts and words and she struggled and struggled to tear it down but simply was unable. The woman marked Eva's confusion and laughed a heartless, cold laugh that stung Eva's ears. "You probably wouldn't remember. You're Viking boyfriend ripped him to pieces in a parking lot," Heidi nearly snarled. Her tone and facial expressions resembled that of a feral animal and though Heidi had a good grip on Eva's chin, she still tried to pull away, to get away from those black eyes and those harsh words.

Eva tried harder and harder to remember, to string together a simple thought, but the heaviness in her chest weighted her down, dragged her deeper into unconsciousness.

"Sleep now, little human woman. But know this if nothing else." Heidi paused and her grip tightened until it was almost unbearable. Heidi's face appeared directly in front of Eva's, their noses almost touching, those basilisk eyes flashing violently, as if she could smell the Eva's blood rushing faster then slower. "I will kill you in front of your mate, just as he killed mine. And he will watch, as you die, unable to save you, unable to rescue your pretty little head. And I promise you I will enjoy every moment of his torment, for he will feel it for the rest of his life," Heidi hummed, almost excited with the promise she made. Her eyes flamed and flickered and Eva fell into blackness as Heidi finally released her chin roughly. Eva's eyes closed before she could even utter a word to defend herself or Eric. Eric. Eric was all that mattered now.

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AH! Cliffhanger! I know. I'll try to get this next chapter goin' before too long! Review because it keeps me sane, thank you!

-Kate


	14. Chapter 14

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Hey guys! alright so here's the next chapter, glad you guys liked the last one...hope you like it!

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He had left the bar as soon as the sun set, the exact second it disappeared beneath the horizon. Pam wasn't around yet, so he left a note on the bar for both her and the bartender. White-hot anger flashed through his mind at the thought of Eva trapped somewhere against her will, kept from him. Before the door shut behind him, he was already running down the street, ignoring anyone who got in his way. The license plate numbers were literally burned into his mind. Now he knew where to find the van, all he needed to decide was what he was going to do once he had them in his hands.

Some minutes later, Eric arrived at the house where the van was parked in the driveway. He walked toward the van, reached up underneath it, and pulled the brake cord. No one was going anywhere even if they wanted to, and if they did manage to escape the house, it would be a fool's errand. Needless to say, they wouldn't get very far. He brushed himself off and eyed the house. Now the only question was, how was he going to get himself inside? He obviously had to be invited in and no one was going to invite a strange man into their house. While he mulled that over, he decided it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to look around, peek inside the windows and see exactly what he was up against.

Silent as the dead and faster than any human eye could move, he was on the roof, peering inside the second story windows. There was absolutely no furniture. Nothing, no beds, no nightstands, dressers, lamps, or anything else a human would need to live comfortably in a house. It was the same in every single bedroom he looked into. Quitting the second level, Eric jumped off the roof and looked into the front room-nothing still. The kitchen was exactly the same save for the counter tops and a run down, beaten up table that looked as if it was seconds away from falling over. Eric furrowed his brow as he ran around back, kneeling down to look into the basement, the only level he hadn't checked yet. After brushing the leaves away and palming through the overgrown shrubbery, Eric squinted against the dirty, barred window.

In the middle of the empty basement, cuffed to a chair by the wrists and ankles, was Eva. Her head hung down on her chest, her veil of black curls hiding her face from view, but he knew those hands, that hair, those little feet. For a moment, he was frozen in place, staring at her, cursing himself for not being able to save her from this evil. The anger and regret he felt was overwhelming and he was sure that if anything were to happen to her, he would kill everyone and anyone who laid a hand-a finger- against her. He swore he would.

He had to force himself away from the fragile picture of Eva inside the basement, though the image was forever burned into his memory. Pacing back and forth in the driveway was getting him nowhere. The moon wasn't going to wait for him to get his shit together, but the fact of the matter was that he simply couldn't get into the house without being invited in. Eva was passed out and behind barred, thickly paned glass so she wasn't in any position to let him in.

Breaking through his idle musings, came the sound of footsteps heading toward him from the front door. Eric slipped behind a bush, looking through the branches at the man and recognizing him immediately from the bookstore security cameras. He was the man who had abducted Eva from the parking lot of her favorite bookstore. Eric would remember those nervous, beady little eyes for a lifetime and then some. Eric made his move and breezed out from behind the bush, appearing in front of the startled man.

"Good evening," Eric purred, a sinister shadow darkening his blonde brow casting all the light out of his blue eyes. One of Eric's hands shot out and captured the unsuspecting man's throat. He muttered a strangled cry of absolute horror and wrapped his hands around Eric's stone wrist in a desperate but doomed effort to escape. Eric stood still and silent for a moment, tightening his grip in intervals and watching the man's face turn alarming shades of purple and red. When the man started to gargle and his eyes began to roll backwards, Eric found the will somewhere deep inside of him to lessen his grip on the man's throat. "I believe you have something that belongs to me," Eric growled, his voice low and calm but somehow painful to listen to- like his voice was a thousand daggers stabbing unrelentingly. "Either you invite me into the house, or I rip out your heart through your throat." The man's eyes grew wide with fear for his life, and he struggled futilely in Eric's iron grip. "Now," Eric murmured like a killer, "Wasn't there something you wanted to say?" Eric softened his grip to the point where the man could talk, but still kept him stationary. The man sputtered and wheezed for breath and Eric shook him once hard to remind him of the job assigned to him.

"Come in," he coughed and Eric seized the man's arm and snapped it, along with both of his legs. Before shoving him into the back of his own van, Eric knocked him unconscious. He then flew into the house and straight down the basement stairs. Eva was still doubled forward, silent and still. Appearing on bended knee in front of her, Eric reached his hands up, pushing her black hair aside, and grabbed his face in his hands. He had to work to keep his hands gentle after so long spent being harsh. Turning her delicate face over in his palms, he discovered that she was physically unharmed and there were no telling little holes in her neck. She appeared clean, just unconscious. He could hear her heart beating and he had never in his life, human or vampire, heard a noise more beautiful than the constant thumping of her pulse.

"Evalina," Eric whispered urgently. "Evalina," he said again, shaking her awake. When she finally did open her eyes she looked at him like she had never seen him before. A beat of torment passed during which Eric stared silently at her, then, her beautiful pewter eyes recognized him and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Eric, oh God, Eric," she sobbed and rested her forehead against his, reveling in the coolness of his touch and the smell from his skin. Eric tilted his head up and kissed her deeply, passionately, harder than he had previously intended but she didn't complain. She responded to his lips and moved hers against his like she would surely die if she didn't have his lips on hers. Eric reached down to the cuffs that kept her anchored to the chair, his lips still fastened to hers. When his fingers made contact with the cuff, he drew away quickly, hissing in pain as his skin burned. Eva's eyes began to tear as she realized what he had tried to do. "They're silver cuffs, Eric." Eric swore under his breath and reached back up to her face.

"What happened? Who did this?" Eric asked, his pale blue eyes flashing with anger.

"The man, the one you saved me from that night in the parking lot, his mate is the woman keeping me here." She watched Eric's face contort with anger and remembrance. He never thought that particular instance would come back and haunt him. He opened his mouth to say something, to tell her he was so very sorry that this happened, but he was interrupted -violently.

Eva screamed in surprise and anguish as Heidi attacked Eric from behind with a silver chain link rope. Of course she had elbow length, leather gloves on to protect her from the silver. Eric toppled over and went flying across the room, a red, angry gash appearing on his right shoulder. Behind him, Eva cried his name but he knew he couldn't get to her without first killing this woman.

"Finally, the infamous Eric Northman, come to visit his damsel in distress," Heidi purred sarcastically, walking toward Eva and seizing a large handful of her black hair, yanking her head back. Eric stood but stopped his approach when Heidi wrenched at Eva brutally, warning him to not come a step closer. "Ah, ah, Mr. Northman. I promised this one a slow and painful death in front of you. What a pity it would be if you rushed things and forced my hand." A feral growl escaped Eric's throat as he stopped in his tracks, wincing as the wound on his shoulder healed itself. "Much better," Heidi cooed, still holding Eva's hair in her fist. "Now, you'll watch as she died. And you'll lose the one person you care about, just like I did," Heidi threatened, her fangs sliding out of her gums. Eva didn't fight against her closed fist; she had accepted her grim fate.

"No." Eric's one word caught Heidi off guard and the smile she had on her face turned downward. Eric looked toward Eva who looked up at him with great, big, watery eyes. "You will take me instead. You will kill me in her place," Eric commanded, taking a cautious step toward Heidi as he took his eyes off of Eva.

"Eric, no! No!" Eva yelled, her fervor piquing Heidi's interest. Eric ignored Eva's desperate cries, though each syllable was a dagger twisting in his gut. Heidi wouldn't kill Eva, she wouldn't rob Eva of her life for a crime that he had committed. She begged and pleaded and yelled and cried, but the two vampires stood perfectly still and stared at each other. One contemplated whom she would kill; the other did whatever he could to tune out Eva's pleas for his life.

"Very well. Fair trade. Tomorrow night, you will die, Mr. Northman," Heidi spoke clearly and idly as she released Eva's black mane with a shove. "Jonathon," Heidi called and in a moment's time, a tall, dark man appeared behind Eric. Heidi ambled toward Eric, swinging the chain absently at her side. "You die for a human?" Heidi asked, disgustedly. Eric stood motionless as she walked behind him and lashed his wrists with the silver chain, nodding for Jonathon to lead him away. Eric looked over to Eva and tried to memorize her face, burn it into his eternal memory.

"Eric, I love you. I love you," Eva whispered, but she knew he would hear her. His blue eyes softened and all but turned to liquid at the sound of her voice and the movement of her lips spilling forth the words he had been yearning to hear for nearly two days. If his heart could beat, it would beat for her.

"Forever, my little teacup," he murmured and then Jonathon led him around a corner.

Heidi appeared at her side, kneeling down and looking up at her like she was the devil himself.

"Now," she whispered, her voice so beautiful and melodic, but her intentions so sickeningly evil. "You will know the pain I suffer because of you," Heidi spat. For a long moment, Heidi's eyes locked onto Eva's, unrelenting and just as cold and hard as two stones. Then, just before she stood and disappeared up the stairs, Eva thought she saw Heidi's eyes melt a little bit by her sadness and pain. But the moment came and went and Eva didn't have the energy or the want to think the moment over again. Now, her every waking thought was dedicated to Eric.

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Review, review, review!!

-Kate


	15. Chapter 15

Noctuary: Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Jesus! I'm sorry this took me so long, I'm so sorry and I hope you'll all forgive me. College is a bitch and I'm doin' my best! Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. This is actually the very first chapter I ever wrote of this entire story. It was my starting point and I basically formulated everything else from this right here! So, that being said, enjoy, because I've done like 264 drafts of this to make it above perfection!! Ha-enjoy!

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He laid completely still, his crystal blue eyes closed and a crease between his brows hardened his face. It had been a long while since he had moved or spoken and it was making Eva angrier and angrier. His inhuman calmness unnerved her and she became jittery and unsettled, even more so than before. Her eyes ran over his alabaster skin, reddened and angry where the silver chain weighed him down. She knew he must be in overwhelming, excruciating pain, but his handsome face betrayed absolutely no emotion whatsoever. He simply looked as though he slept.

Sensing her anger, he took a deep, drawn-out breath and rolled his head on the table to face her. In an instant, his eyes had snapped open and he looked at her like the world had come to rest on his shoulders. The violet bags underneath his eyes were a deeper, startlingly vibrant color and his usually wonderfully silky smooth skin was almost translucent and sickly. The pain and devotion in his eyes shook her to her core but she couldn't look away-wouldn't.

"You can hate me, be frustrated with me, scream at me, hit me, and refuse to speak to me anymore," he spoke, his voice low and agonized as he looked at her. Something in his face communicated to her that he wished she wouldn't do any of those things. "But this is the way things are _going_ to go." His voice was icy and serious, leaving virtually no room for argument, but then again, that had never stopped her in the past and it would be irresponsible of him to think it would. He watched as anger flared up in her like a great wave does on open water. Her eyes narrowed, trying to stop the tears that automatically welled up against her lashes. Her plush mouth curled into a purse and she shifted in the chair she was handcuffed to next to his steel table. Anger colored her whole face, as if painting a picture with a brush. It made her pewter eyes sparkle and her cheeks bloom like the most beautiful, pink carnation. Her anger had always inspired him and he couldn't stop the happiness that flowed through him like warm blood.

At that moment, she wanted to do all those things to him, but what good would that do? In the thirty seconds her hands were un-cuffed, she had actually slapped him before being re-cuffed to the chair she sat in now. She had slapped him as hard as she could across his fine, marble face and all she got for that was a bruised palm and stinging fingers. His face hadn't reddened from the strike; his head hadn't even moved at all, save for a few stray strands of golden hair that had fallen out of place. His calm never faltered though; he had remained still and gentle toward her stubborn harshness. He didn't flinch when she yelled and swore and screamed, and his otherworldly peacefulness never wavered during her silent treatment. It was like he had just given up, stopped fighting. He had fought against man and beast alike for over a thousand years and yet, now was when he laid down and waved the white flag?

For her.

The very thought of his self-sacrifice made her stomach churn painfully. In no way could she imagine her life not running parallel to his. In no way did she want her life to keep running if his life, if that's what it was, stopped. He had offered himself in her stead, allowing himself to be chained to a steel table so she could go free. As the sacrificial words had come out of his mouth, all the heat had rushed from her body, leaving her with a lasting feeling of dull, horrible numbness. The world around her had seemed surreal in a way. The walls were too white, corners were too sharp, the lights were too bright, Heidi's face contrasted unpleasantly with her clothing, the air was too thick, and her mind seemed to fly straight from her body, allowing her the rare opportunity to watch herself crumble into a thousand million little pieces. The sound of her heart shattering and her world crashing down around her was loud enough that it nearly deafened her.

The room they were locked in now was desolate and stark. The only furniture in the room was the steel table Eric was lying on and the steel chair she was handcuffed to, which was inched as close to him as she could manage. The weight of the situation sank into her bones, making her whole body heavy and weak. All the fight drained out of her and she looked at him desperately.

"Please," she begged hoarsely, her eyes closing in raw emotion. She felt the sorrow radiate from her body and she hoped she could reason with him before it was too late. She hoped beyond hope that he would change his mind and see how utterly ridiculous he was being. His ice blue eyes watched her intensely from under his long, light lashes as she re-opened her eyes and focused on him seriously, willing the tears away. "Please, don't do this," she whispered, her voice catching in her throat. Time was slipping through her fingers and yet, no matter how hard she fought, she couldn't stop its passing.

"I'm sorry, sweetness," he whispered, his voice soft, almost inaudible as his eyes blazed into hers. Bright, red blood rimmed his eyes, pushing up against his blonde lashes and highlighting his crystal blue irises as he watched her fall apart. His appearance had deteriorated considerably. He was dying slowly, painfully, horribly, right in front of her eyes and she couldn't even reach out and touch his face to ease his suffering.

The determination and compassion in his eyes was staggering and this time, she didn't try to stop the tears that spilled from her eyes. He was completely dedicated to giving himself in her stead, she could see that now and the realization made her want to scream and stop breathing all at the same time. Those three words, three little heart-breaking words, pierced through her like fine tipped arrows aimed straight for her heart, her lungs, her throat, her stomach, her head. She was becoming hysterical and she knew it, but God help her, she wouldn't live without him.

"Eric, I can't…I won't live without you," she said, her voice firm and unbreakable as she looked over at him. He shook his head slowly, as best he could with the heavy silver chain draped across his neck like a woolen scarf. His tortured eyes closed as he turned his head away from her, a hardness shrouding his features in the blackest darkness.

"Don't be selfish, Evalina," he almost snarled, his voice deadly serious. In that instance, Eva could feel a little bit of his usual sternness push past the surface. She heard the command in his voice, the order, the concern, and the passion. It was a welcomed change from his previously haunting calm. "Do not even think about taking your own life. It's the most selfish, thoughtless act there is on this planet," he growled severely, chastising her with scolding hot words and had he been looking at her, his eyes would have burned permanent holes into her skin. He remained very still for a moment, composing himself and shaking the anger from his skin. "Don't ever say that again," he murmured scornfully, gentler though, not as harsh. His calmness was creeping back into his voice and the air around him was settling into peacefulness again. She wanted to push him, push the edges of his self-control to make him get angry with her. He wasn't the same now and it was almost painful to witness.

"How dare you! How dare you tell me what to do!" she screamed, her tears shaking her voice. "Why are you doing this? Why are you torturing me like this?" His eyes were still closed but she saw his face tighten up and his brow furrow deeply, ancient creases appearing between his eyebrows. "Everyone I've ever loved has died, everyone that ever meant anything to me had died and left me here alone. And then you come along and you love me like that and you look at me like that and you make me _feel_ something, something else besides pain and sadness. And now you're leaving me too?" She screamed at him and then paused, as if the wind had been kicked out of her, leaving her silently breathless and wounded. She took three breaths before she started again. "How can you possibly expect me to go on living without you, knowing that I was the one who killed you?" her voice had dropped, becoming low, small, and his eyes slowly opened as he rolled his head toward her on the hard, flat table. She breathed heavily, her eyebrows pulled so low over her pewter eyes that they were completely shadowed. Her lips puckered open and her eyes stung painfully with tears she absolutely refused to let him see spill.

"Evalina," Eric hummed, holding out the 'a' a beat longer, his voice like the sweetest, most euphoric song she had ever heard in her life. Her breath hitched in her throat. "You won't be the one who killed me. I made that happen all by myself." The tone of his voice was tinged with humor but hopelessly mangled with sadness.

She stared at him, expressionless but filled with emotion. The torrent of feelings that roared through her froze her face in a perfect mask, each emotion refusing to debut on her smooth skin. In that instance, she knew that she couldn't let him die. She would do whatever it took to save his life. If it meant that she would die, so be it. This wouldn't be the last time that she looked into those ice blue eyes; that privilege wouldn't be taken from her by someone else's hand that was for damn sure. But she wouldn't worry him. She wouldn't let him think that she was going to do anything rash-which she completely proposed to do. Taking a deep breath, she reigned in her surge of emotions and offered him a weak smile, shaky, but a smile nonetheless.

"Close you eyes, Eric. Just sleep now. The sun's up and you're starting to bleed," she cooed gently, her eyes softening sweetly. He sensed a change of emotion inside of her, but was absolutely too weak to put his finger on them at the present. He felt fatigue crush his chest and his eyes fluttered shut at her command. "I love you, Eric Northman," she whispered as his eyes shut finally, her breath catching as a single red droplet of blood streamed down his cheek as if someone had taken a marker and drawn the line there. She leaned forward as far as her restraining handcuffs would let her, and kissed his exposed shoulder, the only space on his body that she could actually reach with her mouth. "It's alright," she whispered, kissing him again, reveling in the feeling of his familiar, cool skin against her lips. "Everything's going to be alright."

* * *

Whoa! Okay, I hope you liked it. Reviews would be just awesome, as you all know, and I promise that the next chapter will not be so far off. As always, thanks for reading and reviewing! You guys are the best ever, ever, ever.

-Kate


	16. Chapter 16

Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

So, here it is! It was a long time coming, I know, believe me, I know. But I really hope you guys like this! We're nearing the end here and I really want these last couple of chapters to count! Enjoy!

She wasn't sure what time it was anymore. The window was boarded up so she couldn't tell if the sun was shining or rising or fading out. As she stared hard at the boarded up window, her vision blurred by a constant stream of tears, she realized what she needed to do. There was virtually nothing in the room that would help her get out of the handcuffs she wore, but she knew what would help her wiggle her hands free. She looked to Eric. He was motionless on the table beside her. He appeared completely dead, almost like he had always been that way. It looked like life had never inhabited him, blood had never flowed through him to stabilize his life, a heart had never beat inside his chest. He looked like he had been dead from the beginning he was so perfectly still and beautiful in his slumber. Gazing at him, she knew she couldn't stand idly by and watch Heidi tear him to pieces before her eyes. She knew she had to do something to protect him, to protect the man that had given her so much when she didn't have the means to give anything back. He had filled her with a life so meaningful and so well and truly good that every single part of her body ached to see him moving and blinking and existing again.

She took a deep breath, one that filled her lungs until there was no more room inside of them for air. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut against the thought of what she would do next. Making as little noise as possible, she scooted her chair away from the table, noticing with a start the way Eric's ears, nose, and closed eyes were bleeding. There wasn't much time to waste. The handcuffs clinked together as she maneuvered her hands behind her, turning one perpendicular with the ground below and making a flat palm as if she was going to slap someone. One hand; all she needed was one hand freed from the handcuffs. Her left hand would have to be the sacrificial hand in this instance and she pushed her fingers together, willing her breaths to come in and out slowly.

Hoisting her leg up to the table Eric laid on, she placed her foot against the side, looking over her should to make sure she would have enough room. One good shove would do the trick. A good, hard shove would free her. Her palms were sweating and she hadn't even pushed off yet. Her heart sounded like a day at the races and her stomach already turned with the thought of the impending pain.

"Okay," she whispered quietly, soothingly to herself. "One." Silence. "Two." Silence. Silence. "Three."

A firm push from her leg sent the chair sailing backwards and straight down, her entire body weight plus the weight of the chair coming down on her exposed hand. There was quite the sickening snapping of bones and clanking of metal against cement but besides those two sounds, Eva didn't utter a syllable. Her eyes were instantly filled with tears and those tears wasted no time spilling down her cheeks. The pain in her hand was excruciating, however, she had dealt with worse pain before.

Eva rolled over to her side, taking the chair she was still attached to with her as she rolled. Biting back yelps of pain, she manipulated her crushed hand out of the handcuff with relative ease, sighing very deeply when she parted her hands. She couldn't look at her mangled hand, she refused to lose her stomach now that she was so close to freedom, both his and hers. She hauled herself into a seated position and cradled her limp, bleeding hand in her lap for a moment, silent sobs escaping her lips. Just having felt her hand, she knew she had done some serious damage and at the very least, half of the bones were shattered inside. That would be a lucky instance. She shook her head hard, as if the motion would drive the terrible pain and dizziness away. There was no time to be wallowing or crying. There were decisions to be made still and things to be done to ensure that Eric remained in the land of the living.

She rose to her feet, stumbling, unsteady from the blackness that crept into her vision around the edges and the sparks of light that flitted across her pupils from the pain. A deep breath helped her center herself. A second deep breath reminded her to push on. She picked up the chair with her good hand and hoisted it over to the boarded window, setting it directly underneath. She wiped the sweat from her brow and craned her neck up to see the window. She figured she only needed one board, but that all depended on whether or not the sun would come streaming in and affect Eric lying helplessly on the table. So, she climbed onto the chair and peeked through the splinters in the boards. It was twilight outside the basement.

"Shit," she cursed, whipping her head around to look at the door, though no noise indicated there were visitors. She knew that twilight meant that it was time for the vampires to come out and play. Now she completely forgot about the pain in her hand and the nausea building in her stomach. She reached up with her right hand and literally ripped one of the wooden boards from the window, the nails coming out with the plank from the sheer force of her yank. She jumped down from the chair and dragged it across the room as quickly as possible, to keep it out of the way of things as she made her way over to the area that would be behind the door when it was opened.

Before she got there though, she gently peeled the silver chain from across Eric's neck and shoulders. Beneath the chain was red, bloody, sizzling flesh, ugly and irritated. Eva knew that Eric would be too weak to repair himself instantaneously, so she figured this would help him to at least stop bleeding from his nose and ears. Faster than before, she pulled the chain off that was holding down his wrists and ankles, throwing the chains over her shoulder for safekeeping. His flesh was so bloody and so completely destroyed that she felt that same nausea rise up inside her again, but this time out of sheer agony. If it weren't for her, Eric wouldn't be in such a situation. If she hadn't agreed to tag along to a damn vampire bar with Whitney, they both wouldn't be here now. If she had just been polite and accepting of that asshole cowboy vampire's advances then Eric would be safe.

But then she never would have met him. She never would know how wonderful it felt to wake up curled into his side in the early evenings. She would never know how very sweet he could actually be. She would never feel repaired and whole again. After her family died, the hole inside of her was what defined her; it was what steered her life day in and day out. Without Eric, she would never know how to re-define herself. She would never know what real happiness felt like again. So how could she possibly regret meeting him? How could she possibly trade him in for a safe, miserably boring life? Never would she ever. Never would she take back one second with Eric for as long as she lived, and if these were the last few moments she got to spend with him, then she would remember them always, no matter where she ended up, no matter which God claimed her should she die.

She walked up to Eric's head and planted a sweet kiss on his temple, squeezing her eyes closed and committing the feel of his skin on her lips to memory. She pulled her face away before a tear could spill onto his skin and rouse him. Another deep breath led her away from Eric and to her designated spot to await company.

Minutes went by, they ticked slowly away like they were days or weeks or months or years. Her hand throbbed with an unearthly kind of pain and her head pounded violently, as if her brain was pulsating against her skull, trying to break free. She took calculated breaths, deep and calming, a technique her mother taught her way back when. In through the nose, out through the mouth. The breaths came steadily through her nostrils and she felt the air trickle in everywhere: down her throat, past her eyes, against her tongue, filling her chest with the promise of life. The breaths went steadily out, pushed by her diaphragm, long and emptying. In those minutes that felt like months, she had managed to bring her heart rate down, settle her nerves, still her shaking body, and re-arrange her scattered thoughts.

So, when the door swung open and in stepped Jonathon, Eva didn't have to do much thinking. She knew exactly what she should do and how she should do it and she felt no fear or hesitation. She side stepped out from behind the door and drove the wooden plank into Jonathon's back from behind him, pushing with both hands until the tip of the board appeared through his perfectly pressed black shirt. It didn't take much time at all for Jonathon to literally explode into pieces, but Eva hadn't expected such a dramatic death. She had never really seen a vampire die before and this wasn't what she expected to say the least. The plank she used was propped upright, anchored to the ground in a chunk of what was once Jonathon. Now, Jonathon was nothing more than a blood splatter across the stark room she had inhabited for the past day. She took a sort of grim satisfaction in the fact.

She was so proud of her handiwork, however, that she didn't notice Heidi come up behind her and grab a mass of her black hair in her hand.

"Miss Grey. What have you done," Heidi sang in that beautiful voice of hers. A startled scream escaped Eva's lips and though Eric didn't move on the table, he snapped back into consciousness. He saw nothing, but heard what was going on around him, and, was that blood in the air he smelled? He took a quick inventory of his body and was shocked to realize that nothing hurt anymore. Nothing stung or burned or sent shock waves of excruciating pain through his body. Eva must have removed the silver from him while he slept. Now, if he wanted to save her life, he knew he had to think quickly and logically.

There was struggling going on near him, within arm's reach of him, and he knew Eva was a captive audience to what Heidi would say now.

"That's two men in my life that you've managed to do away with. Now, tell me because I'm interested. How does a little human woman end up killing two fully grown, fully developed vampire men?" Heidi asked, her voice sickly sweet and Eric heard Eva grind her teeth together. He needed her to speak so he could know just exactly where she was in relation to Heidi. "You see your vampire over there, Miss Grey?" Heidi spoke again and Eric felt frustration rise inside him, but didn't move, didn't stir. He could once again feel the emotions as they swept through Eva. They were powerful but not once did he feel her regret. There was no emotion that she had that was aimed toward herself and her well-being. Although there was a troubling pain that she felt and he couldn't quite understand where it was coming from. "He's going to die, if he doesn't have a foot in the grave already. You can't save him," Heidi said tauntingly, her voice filled with almost giddy laughter, hauntingly insane laughter. "You can't save him." It sounded like a twisted mantra at this point and Eric heard Eva grunt painfully as Heidi was overcome with crazed laughter that echoed off the bare walls of the stark, little room. Then Eric heard something he never, ever wanted to hear again for as long as he walked the earth. He heard fangs puncture skin.

"Fuck you," Eva choked out before Eric sprang up from the metal table and slammed Heidi backwards with one blow to the face. Eva dropped to the ground in a withered mass, skidding to a halt next to a table leg and blacking out as her head connected with the cement. Eric towered over Heidi as she brushed the drywall off of her shoulders.

"You sneaky bastard." Eric reached down and pulled Heidi up from the ground by the neck, and to his surprise, she didn't fight him. There was a haunting regality to Heidi's face as she raised her chin to meet his gaze. A sublime glint flashed through her eyes the moment their gazes met, and suddenly she was an otherworldly creature. Her stare was no longer threatening, not now that she knew her fate was upon her. Now, she looked almost transcendent, divine in her impossible beauty, tormented by the half-life she led. It was almost as if she had intentionally let him win the battle. She was putting down her arms, and Eric sensed a stillness inside of her that was unlike anything else.

With one strong pull and heave, Eric had swung Heidi around and pushed her body to the ground, right on top of the upright plank that had killed her lackey only moments before. Eric watched the blood soaked tip of the wood push through her chest, directly through her heart. For the split second before she burst into pools and strings of blood, Eric swore her lips were smiling.

Without a second thought to Heidi, Eric was at Eva's side, lifting her into his arms and shaking her tiny body gently as he kneeled in what had to be an inch of blood. The tiny hand that had fit so snuggly into his was crushed and mangled, almost to the point where he couldn't tell it was a hand at all. There was a gash across her forehead and her neck bled profusely. By what he could sense, she barely had time left to live. He had to make a decision, because at this point in time, his blood wasn't going to fix the situation as neatly as it had before. So, he pressed her to him and left the house in a blur that human eyes couldn't possibly track, and headed straight for the bar. He knew what he would do. He knew how to fix her.

AH! So tell me what you guys thought, I'm dying to know. Review!

-Kate


	17. Chapter 17

Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Okay! Finally, right? I hope you like this, let me know what you think!

Eric couldn't remember the last time he had slept underground. He hadn't always been accustomed to a lavish lifestyle; sure, he had been the son of a king, but that was an impossibly long time ago now. Back then, sleeping in the royal court merely meant sleeping in a warm bed and eating warm food. As the years went on, humanity had done better for themselves, improving the quality of life. Perhaps it was because he had come from a darker, rougher time that he yearned for silken shirts and smooth sheets; highly polished wood and beautifully produced artwork. He had done quite well for himself, quite well, and he didn't get to that point by spending his days buried underground in graveyards next to the truly dead.

It didn't matter now though. He molded his body around Eva as best he could with all the dirt packing him in. The smell was overwhelming but he pushed it to the back of his mind. She didn't move, didn't breathe, and didn't flinch. Her pewter eyes were closed, dirt caking her pretty eyelashes. Her small face was pressed into his chest and he was taken by surprise at the coldness of her skin against his bare chest. Eva was always so warm, so supremely glowing beneath his cool skin, leaving her warmth even after she had moved away from him. Now, her skin was wintry against him. He shouldn't be surprised, or even pensive about it. It would be the eternal temperature of her now, something he would share with him.

Before he had Pam bury them in an open grave, he had been able to examine the extent of her injuries. She was dying; the life was literally draining out of her as the minutes passed by. Her skin was graying, her nail beds were turning blue, along with her plush lips, and a little sheen of sweat was appearing near her hairline. Her delicate little hand was crushed, and if he hadn't made the split second decision to change her, mere humans would never have been able to set it so it would be the same again. Now, when she woke up, she would be perfect. She would feel no pain. On the contrary, she would feel infinite power, immeasurable strength, overwhelming emotions.

He only hoped he wasn't too late.

She had lost a lot of blood on the way to the bar, but he wouldn't have been able to dig the grave and fill it up with both himself and Eva inside. He needed Pam's help and she sensed his coming.

They only had a little more time, just a little more time and then Eva would be immortal and safe and alive…in a very loose sense of the word. He wished his motions weren't stalled by the heaviness of the dirt around him and he feared moving too much would disturb Eva. He knew this worry was a ridiculous one because he had created Pam. He knew what to expect, but things were so much different with Eva.

Of course he loved Pam. She meant a great deal to him. They had spent centuries together and the bond between them, as child and maker, was tighter and more secure than any other. The devastation that would befall him if ever she died a true death would be unspeakable.

Evalina was different. His love for Pam was like a father to a child. His love for Eva was vast and boundless. How he had managed to get involved with a human woman was a delightful surprise. She was so small, so unassuming and so completely lovely that he, great Viking Eric Northman, didn't stand a fighting chance against her. Unlike him and Pam, he hadn't spent much time with Eva, but it had been enough. It had been enough for him to lay down everything to save her. The devastation that would befall him if ever Evalina died a true death would spread out in front of him like an endless ocean that he would never be able to begin to cross. Immortality had always excited him in a certain way. It was always like a code he was inches away from cracking. All the new faces and places and the ever-evolving ingenuity of the human entranced him. But if she didn't exist anymore, if she ceased to be, then he found nothing appealing about immortality. He would be tortured by the promise of a never-ending existence, in sheer and pure pain and agony at the fact that while he went on moving and walking, she couldn't.

Pam waited. She was no stranger to waiting for Eric. He always had something mysterious or cryptic he was doing or taking care of and he needed her to wait for him at the bar or at the house. And she would continue to wait because he was her master. He was everything she had in the entire world and she would wait and wait until he came back.

She was surprised by the fact that she didn't absolutely hate Evalina. She actually liked the quiet spark of life behind her eyes; it was a quality Pam hoped Eva would retain once she woke up. She liked how Evalina took to the bar and remained calm and cool. Her aloofness surprised Pam. Most humans would run screaming in the opposite direction, but not Evalina. She made fast allies with both the bartender and Pam and Pam had knowingly allowed the alliance.

In all honesty, maybe Pam liked Evalina so much because she could sense that Eric felt so strongly about her. When he was happy, he radiated it, not to mention he was easier to deal with. He had sometimes been a little on the solemn side. He was a hard character to crack. He let no one in, kept himself completely sealed up and Pam was getting a kick out of watching him unravel like the hem of a poorly made shirt. She shuddered at the thought, god forbid.

Once again, she had destroyed a perfectly good pair of pumps to go trudging through the dirt for Eric Northman. She had been literally ankle deep in dirt and mud as she shoveled dirt into a deep grave, covering up the lifeless form of Eva pressed against Eric. He had met her gaze as she piled the dirt in and in that simple look was true gratitude and affection. She nodded, feeling something like a lump in her throat as she poured in shovel load after shovel load into the hole until it was full. Nothing brings one back from an emotional goodbye like dirt between their toes and caked into the buckle of their favorite shoes. She didn't have the energy to change them now so she sealed herself into a coffin in the back of Fangtasia clad in the muddy, sea foam green pumps that had matched so wonderfully with her new dress. Pity.

Eva didn't know where she was. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, but the smell was enough of a clue. It smelled like moist dirt and it was all around her, not just coming in wafts. It didn't ebb and flow like it was coming from somewhere off in the distance, it was a constant smell and she was acutely aware of it every time she took a breath. Instinctively, she held her breath. Much better. Now, she was able to take inventory of the rest of her body. It seemed that she was encased in something, something sticky and unfamiliar. It definitely wasn't a bed, that was one thing, but there was something she recognized. Strong arms were firmly wrapped around her body and she felt her cheek pressed up against what could only be Eric's chest. She would know the feeling of that skin anywhere. There was one thing different about it, though. It wasn't frigid cold. It was comfortable against her. She knew it wasn't regular human skin because it was impossibly smooth and silky, but it didn't burn her cheek with cold like it usually did.

There was no more pain, either. Nothing. She felt divine, filled with energy and boundless power. She focused hard on her hand. There was nothing but the same squishy moistness she felt against every other part of her body. Unbelievable. Then, something else struck her. She still hadn't taken a breath and it had been quite a while, yet she felt no discomfort. She concentrated harder. There was no burning sensation in her lungs that alerted her to the necessity of air, her muscles didn't ache from oxygen deficiency, and her head didn't spin from dizziness. She didn't have to breathe.

Right then, she knew exactly where she was.

"Eric," she whispered, shoving gently against his chest. In an instant, the ground moved around her and dirt was cast in every direction from Eric's quick extraction from the ground. Before she knew what had happened, she was standing on her own two feet, Eric's face inches away from hers, his large hands steadying on her shoulders. It was a good thing his hands were there; she felt so good she was afraid she might fly away if they weren't.

"Evalina," he breathed, his beautiful face ethereal in the moonlight. The smile that took over her face was slow spreading as she remembered the last night of her human life. She became elated by what she had done. She had saved his life. He was alive because she wasn't afraid to take action and put herself between him and Heidi. She couldn't contain herself.

"Eric, Eric," she said, the word was on repeat in her mind and she said it over and over again. She was surprised by her own strength as she cast his hands off her shoulders and threw herself at him. He uttered a grunt as they launched backwards and fell onto the dirt he had recently dug up. "Eric, oh, Eric," she murmured between kisses, holding his face between her hands. He laughed at her giddiness and intensity and her unwillingness to conceal her emotions, even in a dark graveyard. On the other hand, who was their witness? Dead men tell no tales.

Finally, Eric got a hold of Evalina's impossibly fast moving face and captured it in his hands, inches away from his own until their noses almost touched. She tasted his skin and dirt on her tongue and the tastes had never been so sharp, so real until now. Nothing before this seemed real because nothing had ever been so acute or poignant. It was like she was seeing him for the very first time, like she had just opened her eyes. Now, she was able to take in his true beauty. The color of his hair was even more golden; the paleness of his skin was impossibly smooth and too delicate for someone so big. His eyes were painfully blue, flecks of darker shades of blue dotting his irises. God, she wanted to weep, she was so overcome with emotion. She wished he would let her face go so she could go on kissing him; he felt absolutely wonderful underneath her lips and she could only imagine what the rest of him felt like.

"Evalina, do you remember what happened?" he asked, gently so that she wouldn't be spooked. He couldn't help but treat her like a baby, which of course is what she was when her recent species switch was taken into account. She smiled that same quiet, pensive smile that she always had.

"Eric," she cooed, her voice musical. She reached up slowly and ran her fingers down the length of his face. "You're alive. Don't be mad. I did what I had to do to save you. I couldn't let you sacrifice yourself for me. I would have died saving you, you know," she breathed, her fingers lingering on his chin for the moment it took for her words to sink in. "I remember what I did, and I remember what you did."

Eric stilled underneath her, searching her sparkling eyes for any hint of anger for what he had done to her while at the same time searching her feelings for any ill will. He found nothing. He found elation, pure, unbridled happiness. There was nothing inside of her that spelled hurt or anger or pain. She was happy and safe here in his arms and he breathed a hypothetical sigh of relief.

"I had no choice," he started, combing his fingers through her black, silken locks. "It was immortality or death and I couldn't…can't bear to lose you," he whispered, a shadow of regret flitting across his dirty face. Eva felt the emotion as it coursed through him and she wrapped her hands around his wrists as his hands held her face.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," she answered. She turned her face into his palm and kissed it softly, turning back to look at his smiling eyes.

"My little teacup human."

I really hope you guys like this...I'm not yet sure whether I should keep going with it or end it there (or maybe squeeze one more chapter in there). Let me know what you guys think, I would love the feedback.

-Kate


	18. Epilogue

Noc"tu*a*ry\ (?; 135), n. [L. noctu by night.] A record of what passes in the night

Oooooookay, back by popular demand! I at least thought that I should give Evalina and Eric an epilogue (like someone suggested) but now I can't decide if I should take it further because I've got a couple of ideas rolling around in the ol' noggin. I suppose my best bet is this: read this chapter, lemme know what you all think about it, and if the feedback is good, I'll take it to the next level. If not, meh, I had fun writing and reading all your wonderful wonderful comments and reviews. Either way, I appreciate everyone's input and thank you a thousand million times! ENJOY NOW PLEEEEASE!

"I just can't believe it," Whitney mumbled, awe-struck, as she stared at Eva from across the table. Eva didn't shrink away from Whitney's penetrating stare because she knew that it wasn't malicious. She was merely curious about her friend's new state. "Can I touch you?" Whitney squeaked hesitantly and Eva giggled, the noise sounding like the most delicate fingers fluttering over the strings of a harp.

"Yes, Whitney," Eva answered, rolling the sleeve of her black blazer up to her elbow. In one of the most graceful gestures Whitney had ever seen, Eva laid her forearm underside up across the table, fingers stretching toward her.

Whitney stared at it at first, shocked at how wintery white her previously tanned skin appeared. It was smooth looking and completely blemish free. There were no cuts, not bruises, no scars or scrapes. Eva's arm looked as though it had been sculpted by Alexandros of Antioch himself from the finest creamy marble.

"Go ahead, Whit. Don't be afraid. It's only skin, still my own," Eva nudged gently in a velvety voice. Whitney's eyes flicked up from Eva's arm to her eyes quickly then back to her exposed skin. Finally, she reached out toward Eva's arm; pausing centimeters from the skin for the briefest of moments, then letting her fingers make contact. Whitney gasped but was too enraptured with the silky feeling of her friends skin to pull away. She dragged her fingers backwards and forward up and down the length of Eva's arm, her eyes wide with wonder. The skin was smooth as still water. It almost felt like she was touching air. There was no hitch in the skin, no raised veins protruding, no errant hairs catching. Eva's arm was unlike anything she'd ever felt before in her life and suddenly she could understand the fuss about hooking up with vampires.

"Jesus, Evalina," Whitney breathed, her fingers still pressed against Eva's arm. To Eva, the touch felt like a feather, or a fleck of dust on her arm.

"It's definitely a change," she answered and allowed Whitney to continue to marvel at her immortal skin. She knew her friend, though always entranced with vampires, had never actually taken the time to inspect their skin up close and in painstaking detail.

"Look at you, you're completely different-I mean appearance wise. You were really pretty before but now you're like," Whitney paused to gesture in grand circles with her free hand. "You're like inhuman. I've never seen anything like you, and I've seen female vampires before, but you're different," she finished, finally letting her eyes peel away from Eva's arm and looking at her friend's eyes.

"I'm not so different," Eva whispered, eyes downcast. The last thing she wanted or needed was her best friend thinking she was some sort of unnatural, sinister being. She still felt herself; only she was now the best version of herself possible. She still wanted to be herself, except now she was extraordinary. Eva looked up when Whitney ceased drawing circles and literally grasped Eva's forearm.

"Oh, Evie, I know. You're not different; you're still my best friend, my sister! Don't think I love you any less just because you're dead," Whitney said in a familiar joking tone that set Eva's nerves to rest. Both friends smiled at each other over the table and Whitney laughed. "Now, let's see those chompers," she said and released Eva's arm. Eva giggled and her fangs suddenly appeared where regular teeth had been seconds ago. Whitney's excited gasp made Eva laugh a lilting melody. "Wow," Whitney said and Eva snapped them back into her gums.

"They're something, that's for sure," Eva responded. Then she became pensively silent for a second, her eyes glazing over as she looking passed Whitney's shoulder. As quickly as she became distant, she snapped out of her trance and a warm, stunning smile captured her lips. "Eric's coming," she finally said, her eyes reconnecting with Whitney's.

"How do you-"

"Hello, ladies," an accented, smooth voice interrupted Whitney's sentence. She looked up from Eva to find Eric, the blonde haired god that had started the ball rolling. He was the picture of elegance and charm, he exuded wit and cunning, not to mention hoe startlingly handsome he was just standing there behind Evalina like a shadow. He suit was sublime in its fit; the collar of his oxford was starched and pristine underneath his jet-black blazer. He looked like a walking Gucci ad with his light hair slicked back in neat brush strokes. In all honesty, Whitney couldn't blame Eva for choosing Eric over humanity.

His palm rested on top of Eva's head and slowly stroked down the length of her silky black locks, his face a mask of adoration.

"Evalina," Eric cooed and Eva tilted her head upwards and closed her eyes as Eric kissed her lips twice with two quick, but sweet, kisses, letting his face linger suspended over hers for a moment after her eyes opened. He was still captivated with the bright beauty of her pewter irises.

"How are you, Whitney?" Eric asked, straightening suddenly and switching his profound blue gaze so quickly from Eva to Whitney that Whitney wasn't sure how it happened.

"Uh it's…I'm alright, thanks, Eric," she answered, stuttering a little bit, unused to Eric's full attention. She had no idea how Eva survived underneath that heavy gaze. Then she realized, lately, Eva's gaze fell just as heavily, like transforming from one species to another came with all this knowledge and power that she never had or needed as a human. Whitney knew that was true to some extent, but she had never felt it so completely until she found herself sitting before these two supreme, perfect, regal beings. How could the human race not realize that vampires were superior to them in almost every way possible? She'd never say that out loud though for fear of being maimed by her own species.

"Ready?" Eric asked casually, a blonde eyebrow rising in simple question. Eva nodded her head and pushed herself up from the table, watching as Whitney did the same.

"Oh, Evie," Whitney choked out and fell into Eva's arms. As Eva wrapped her strong arms around Whitney, Eric felt a well of emotion swell up inside Eva like he hadn't felt since the night she woke into her new life. He struggled with the emotion, probably more so than Eva did because the emotion wasn't so long gone to Eva like it was to Eric. Before Eva came along, he had forgotten how to feel.

"Don't worry, Whit," Eva whispered into her best friend's hair as she sniffled against Eva's shoulder. "I won't be gone forever. I'll come back, I promise. I wouldn't leave you forever," Eva murmured and pressed her cheek against Whitney's.

"I know, I'll just miss you so much," Whitney said, pulling away but still holding onto Eva. "We haven't been apart for more than a couple weeks since we were freshmen in college and-I-I'll just miss you," she sniffled and pulled Eva back into another hug. Eric's patience was a comforting presence inside Eva and she drew from it to calm herself. Crying tears of blood probably wouldn't help set her friend's mind at ease.

"Oh, Whit. I'll miss you too. I'll always miss you for as long as I walk this earth. I love you, Whit," Eva said, fighting back tears.

"I love you too, Evie, forever."

They stayed silently intertwined for a long time, each taking inventory of the other. There were things to be remembered: smells, sights, the way they felt, how the room smelled, the sound of each other's breaths, the pads of fingers against their backs. Everything stopped for Evalina because while Whitney would only remember her until she passed on, Eva would remember their friendship for the rest of forever. And she so wanted to remember.

Finally, they pulled away and Eva took three steps backwards until she knew Eric's chest would be a hairsbreadth behind her. Whitney thumbed a tear away and nodded slowly.

"Goodbye, Whitney," Eva said, eyebrows puckered together and eyes filled with affection.

"Bye, Evalina," she whispered quietly in reply and watched Eva and Eric turn to leave the small, moonlit café.

Once they were in Eric's car and driving toward the airport, Eric spoke up.

"We could stay, Evalina. You don't have to leave everything you know," he cooed gently. He saw the look on her face, felt what she felt inside at leaving Whitney behind. The pain was crushing, the divide between them would be immense and Eric felt that expanse filling his chest like it filled Eva's until he couldn't help but speak. He loved Eva; he loved her from the crown of her head to the balls of her feet. He loved every part of her and that meant he loved her happiness and he wouldn't be the destroyer of it when he had tried his hardest to be the supporter.

Eva turned her face away from the scenery out the car window and regarded Eric's concern with a small smile that spread out her plush, pink lips. She reached over to his face and cupped his cheek softly with her hand.

"I know. But I don't want to stay. I want to go. I want you," Eva answered calmly, in the same soothing tones she would have used as a human. Eric smiled, knowing not much of her had changed and that made him content in his final decision.

"You're sure, now, that you want to spent eternity with me, Evalina?" Eric hummed, his voice sultry and seductive, igniting a fire inside of her that she suppressed. Now was not the time. He felt her flame and his lips twitched at his ability to wind her up so easily. Eva laughed at both his smugness and his question, both silly, silly things. She ran her hand slowly down his cheek, down his neck until it rested lightly on his shoulder.

"Forever and forever and forever," she answered in a melodious voice. He didn't respond, just idly smiled out the windshield at her answer. He was satisfied because he knew she meant it. "Goodbye Shreveport, hello Sweden," Eva murmured, a small smile tugging at her plush lips. Goodbye Shreveport indeed.

Okay there it is. Please review and let me know what you thought, even if you're new to the fic and haven't reviewed before! I await your comments! Thanks again, guys,

Kate


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